Betfair Pty Limited, owned by Crown Resorts and operating under the brand Betfair Australia, has paid an AUS $871,660 penalty to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) for failure to comply with the country’s spam laws.

Following an ACMA investigation, it was revealed that Betfair had sent commercial messages to its VIP programme customers without their consent, offering incentives such as account deposits and free event tickets.

In total, 148 emails and text messages were sent to customers who hadn’t consented or had withdrawn their consent to receive such messages between March and December 2024.

Over the same timeframe, the operator had sent six texts and emails that didn’t contain an unsubscribe option for customers.

“VIP programs are generally designed to attract and retain customers with high betting activity; however, this doesn’t mean VIP customers are well off or can afford losses,” commented ACMA member Samantha Yorke. 

“Sending promotional gambling messages to these customers without consent or with no option to opt-out is incredibly irresponsible in addition to being non-compliant. The spam laws have been in place for over twenty years, and it is simply unacceptable for businesses not to respect the rights of their customers.” 

Betfair is also entering a two-year court-enforceable undertaking, which will require investment in an independent marketing message review to see where improvements need to be made, as well as staff training, quarterly internal audits, and regular reports to the ACMA.

Betfair isn’t the only operator recently to be subject to a penalty for spamming VIP customers.

Tabcorp Holdings was issued a penalty over $4m after an ACMA investigation found the operator had sent over 5,700 marketing messages to its VIP programme customers between 1 February 2024 and 1 May 2024.

In total, 2,538 SMS and WhatsApp messages were sent to VIP customers without an option to unsubscribe from the messages, while 3,148 SMS and WhatsApp messages were sent over the same period without adequate sender information, and 11 SMS messages were sent without consent between 15 February and 29 April 2024.

Yorke added: “This is the second recent ACMA enforcement action concerning VIP customers in the gambling sector. Providers are on notice that they need to have their compliance systems in order.”

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