Insider Betting Could Carry Three Years in Jail Under Proposed Australian Law

Proposed section 495.14 defines inside information as information that is not generally available and would, or would be likely to, influence betting decisions if it became public.

The offence would require more than simply possessing useful information. Under proposed section 495.13, prosecutors would need to establish intentional use or communication, recklessness about whether the information was inside information, and an intention to improperly obtain a benefit or avoid or cause a detriment. The bill’s federal jurisdiction conditions would also have to be satisfied.

Individuals could face a maximum of three years’ imprisonment, a fine of 3,000 penalty units (currently A$1.092 million) or both. Those are maximum penalties, not automatic sentences.

The government’s explanatory memorandum describes misuse of inside information as a potential route into more serious match-fixing activity, while also treating it as a threat to confidence in sport in its own right. That explains why the proposed offence sits separately from offences involving the corruption of an event.

Australian football has already seen how a tactical decision can become a betting-integrity issue.

In 2011, Collingwood’s Heath Shaw was sanctioned after betting on teammate Nick Maxwell to kick the first goal against Adelaide. Maxwell, normally a defender, had been selected to start forward. Shaw received a 14-match suspension, with six matches suspended, and an A$20,000 fine. Maxwell was fined A$10,000, half of it suspended, for recklessly disclosing inside information.

Those were AFL disciplinary sanctions, not findings under the proposed federal offence. The case illustrates the betting significance of private sporting information; it does not establish that the same conduct would satisfy every element of the new criminal law.

Sporting rules also operate separately from criminal offences. Sport Integrity Australia notes that betting restrictions vary between sports: some prohibit participants from betting on their sport entirely, while others prohibit betting on events to which they are connected.

A participant can therefore face a disciplinary problem without the question being whether prosecutors could prove the proposed federal offence.

The proposal should not be read as meaning insider betting is currently lawful across Australia.

In New South Wales, section 193Q of the Crimes Act 1900 already provides a maximum two-year prison sentence for an inside-information offence. It covers specified circumstances involving betting, encouraging another person to bet, or communicating information to someone the sender knows would be likely to bet.

The NSW provision also says prosecutors do not need to prove that the recipient actually placed a bet when pursuing the relevant encouragement or communication offences. Existing law already recognises that passing information along can itself be the conduct at issue.

The federal bill would add a national framework rather than erase these state provisions. Its proposed concurrent-operation clause preserves the operation of state and territory laws capable of applying alongside it.

The broader package carries penalties of up to ten years’ imprisonment for its most serious offences. In announcing the legislation, the government linked sporting corruption to athlete coercion, exploitation and money laundering by transnational criminal groups.

“There’s no place in Australia for match-fixing or conduct that seeks to undermine the integrity of our sporting events,” Attorney-General Michelle Rowland said in the 20 August announcement.

Submissions to the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee’s inquiry close on 9 September, with its report due on 2 October 2026. As drafted, the bill’s main amendments would commence the day after royal assent, but the legislation still needs to complete the parliamentary process.