The Sydney Morning Herald reports..
Australia’s largest online bookmaker Sportsbet has been convicted and fined $22,000 for promoting illegal inducements to bet on horse racing, in the latest case of a wagering company falling foul of NSW’s gambling laws.
Anti-gambling campaigners say the latest conviction shows bookies are incorporating fines for breaking the law into their cost of doing business and that Australia should follow other countries in banning gambling advertising altogether.
Twenty-five bookmakers have been convicted for breaching NSW’s gambling advertising laws since 2015 and gambling identity Tom Waterhouse could be the next in line. His wagering outfit is set to face court next week on 14 charges of breaching the Betting and Racing Act.
In the Downing Centre Local Court in Sydney last Monday, Magistrate Megan Greenwood convicted Sportsbet of breaching the prohibition on offering “inducements” to gamble and fined it $22,000 over a full page ad published in the Daily Telegraph on June 13, 2020.
The ad said punters would get “$50 back in bonus bets” if their horse finished second or third place in race meetings that weekend, sparking an investigation by the state’s gambling watchdog.
