Australia’s Credit-Card Ban on Online Betting Has Little Effect on Heavy Gamblers

A new analysis from the e61 Institute, based on real transaction data, shows that the ban has made little difference to punters’ behaviour, especially among those who place bets frequently. According to the research, Australians who bet the most simply switched to their debit accounts and other payment options once credit cards were no longer accepted.

Before the ban took effect, the average gambler in the study spent just over A$100 per week across all payment types. Once the credit-card option was banned, credit card spending dropped to zero (at least on Australia-licensed websites), while spending on other payment methods like debit cards, electronic wallets, and ordinary bank accounts remained steady at around A$100 per week.

In other words, frequent gamblers didn’t reduce their overall spend; they only changed the payment method.

One of the report’s authors, Adit Maitra, noted that it is “not super clear that the ban has restricted borrowing to gamble in any sense,” pointing out that the reform changed the payment mix, not the behaviour.

The study also highlighted how easy it still is for determined punters to access credit indirectly. Even with the ban in place, nothing stops players from:

• Withdrawing cash from a credit card and depositing it into their betting account.
• Using a credit card to top up PayPal or similar services, then transferring the money to a gambling site.
• Taking out personal loans or using buy-now-pay-later services or quick loans to cover gambling costs.

While not all players use these methods, the report suggests the ban does not successfully block all paths between credit and wagering. For many players in the sample, these workarounds weren’t even needed because they already had enough money in their regular accounts to continue betting without interruption. In other words, the ban barely changed anything in practice and ended up falling short of what it was meant to achieve.

The credit-card ban was part of a wider package of gambling reforms introduced in Australia over the past two years. Other measures included the creation of BetStop, a national self-exclusion register; mandatory monthly activity statements that show deposit history and time spent gambling; and new identity verification requirements for operators.

However, despite the expected 100,000+ users on BetStop, currently, there are only ~30,000 Australians registered on the service. The report also suggests that some operators have not been sending account summaries and haven’t updated their monitoring tools.

Advocates who pushed hardest for the credit-card ban are now saying the reform didn’t go far enough. Their main point is that the policy targeted how people pay rather than why they gamble or how much they lose. They claim that bigger risks, like high-intensity products, long gambling sessions, and the design of certain betting features, were left untouched, as the number of problem gamblers rises in the country.

They also note that the rule ignores the biggest source of gambling revenue in the country, which is pokie machines. Pokies still account for a far larger portion than online betting, yet they were never covered by the credit-card restrictions.

Because of this, the study argues that the reform barely makes a difference, and cutting off one payment option does little when the system stays the same.