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Australian wagering operator Tabcorp has paid an AUD2.7 million (US$1.9 million) penalty after the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) found its TAB brand made thousands of unlawful telemarketing calls and sent marketing messages to customers who had opted out.
The breaches took place between February 2024 and June 2025. The penalty lands little more than a year after the ACMA ordered Tabcorp to pay AUD4 million (US$2.6 million) for a separate set of spam violations, and while Australia’s financial intelligence agency AUSTRAC investigates the company’s anti-money laundering controls.
Thousands of unlawful calls
The ACMA investigation found TAB called 351 VIP customers listed on Australia’s Do Not Call Register without their consent. A further 82 calls were made outside permitted hours, and nearly 4,000 calls were made without TAB identifying itself as the caller or stating the purpose of the call.
The regulator also noted that TAB self-reported in 2025 that it had sent more than 217,000 marketing emails and SMS messages over a 16-day period to customers who had unsubscribed from its marketing channels.
“When people join the Do Not Call Register or unsubscribe from marketing messages, they are making a clear choice. Those choices must be respected, especially given the heightened risks of financial loss and psychological harm from gambling marketing,” said ACMA member Samantha Yorke.
“The scale and range of these breaches point to serious weaknesses in TAB’s compliance systems. The ACMA expects TAB to fix these issues, and we will be watching closely to ensure it meets its obligations,” Yorke added.
Tabcorp points to its transformation programme
Tabcorp acknowledged the ACMA’s findings and said the breaches occurred while the company works through a compliance overhaul that began after a leadership change in late 2024.
“We’re committed to being a compliant company and commenced a whole business transformation under new leadership at the end of 2024,” a TAB spokesperson said. “Tabcorp assisted the ACMA throughout the investigation and will continue to work closely with all regulators as we continue our transformation.”
Investors largely shrugged off the penalty. Tabcorp Holdings shares, listed on the Australian Securities Exchange, rose 2% after the announcement before giving up the gains later in the day.
A growing list of penalties
The fine is Tabcorp’s second major spam penalty from the ACMA in just over a year. In June 2025, the regulator ordered the operator to pay AUD4 million for sending more than 5,700 non-compliant marketing messages to customers during the first half of 2024.
In February this year, the ACMA fined the company AUD158,400 (US$111,800) for accepting more than 400 prohibited in-play bets across 32 tennis matches, in breach of the Interactive Gambling Act 2001. Tabcorp attributed those breaches to a systems error involving a third-party provider.
The record stretches further back. In 2023, the Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission (VGCCC) fined Tabcorp AUD1 million (US$638,600) over a blackout of its Wagering and Betting System during the 2020 Spring Racing Carnival, and New South Wales authorities imposed an AUD15,000 (US$9,618) fine the same year for advertising to people without a TAB betting account.
Marketing conduct has become a consistent enforcement target for gambling regulators well beyond Australia, a pattern documented in Europe’s 2025 compliance record.
AUSTRAC investigation still open
The larger threat to Tabcorp remains the AUSTRAC investigation launched in May into its compliance with anti-money laundering and counterterrorism financing obligations. The company’s share price fell 25% when that probe was announced.
Tabcorp Chairman Brett Chenoweth said at the time that the company “takes its anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing obligations very seriously.”
The ACMA has said it will monitor whether TAB fixes the weaknesses in its compliance systems, and the AUSTRAC findings are still to come. With regulators across the region tightening oversight, including New Zealand’s new capped online casino licensing regime, the next 12 months will show whether Tabcorp’s transformation programme can hold up under scrutiny.
Source: Australian Communications and Media Authority
