Australia Is Rewriting Gambling Acquisition: Affiliate Commissions, Advertising and BetStop Face New Rules

Australia has moved gambling regulation much further into the digital marketing ecosystem.

The Interactive Gambling Amendment (Gambling Reform) Bill 2026 passed both houses of Parliament on 19 August 2026 and received Royal Assent on 26 August. Most major provisions commence on 1 January 2027. Among restrictions covering wagering advertising, BetStop and illegal gambling services sits a particularly important provision for the affiliate industry: commissions to staff or affiliates based on customer activity are being prohibited.

For CasinoAppReview.com and the wider gambling publishing sector, this matters because Australia is no longer regulating only what operators can advertise. The government is increasingly regulating the economics behind customer acquisition.

That potentially changes the value of traditional affiliate models built around the long-term activity of referred customers.

From Advertising Regulation to Acquisition Regulation

Australia already operates one of the developed world's more restrictive online gambling environments. Under the Interactive Gambling Act, online casino-style games offered to people physically present in Australia are prohibited, while licensed online wagering services operate under a different regulatory framework. ACMA has progressively strengthened enforcement against illegal offshore services. It says more than 220 online gambling services have withdrawn from the Australian market following reforms introduced in 2017.

The 2026 reforms represent another stage in this development. They introduce tighter gambling-advertising restrictions covering television, radio, online environments and sporting venues; establish a gambling-advertising opt-out mechanism; strengthen BetStop; restrict some direct marketing and inducements; expand enforcement against illegal services; and prohibit commissions to staff or affiliates where remuneration is based on customer activity.

For affiliates, that final point deserves particular attention.

Traditional gambling affiliate arrangements frequently include CPA, fixed fees, hybrid agreements or revenue-sharing structures. Revenue share is particularly dependent on what referred customers subsequently do.

The legislation therefore signals a movement away from an acquisition environment where the economic value of a referral can remain tied indefinitely to gambling activity.

Why Affiliates Have Become Part of the Regulatory Question

Affiliate marketing sits between media, comparison publishing and customer acquisition.

A gambling operator may buy advertising directly, but it can also acquire customers through search rankings, reviews, comparison websites, influencers, social media and specialist gambling publications.

Australia's reforms effectively recognize that restricting conventional advertisements while leaving the wider acquisition ecosystem untouched would create an obvious regulatory gap.

The Parliamentary Library describes the broader policy objectives as breaking the connection between wagering and sport, minimizing children's and vulnerable people's exposure and reducing gambling-advertising saturation.

This is significant because Australia's gambling marketing market has historically been substantial.

Nielsen Ad Intel figures cited by the Parliamentary Library estimate gambling and gaming advertising expenditure at approximately A$187.75 million in 2024, compared with A$239 million in 2023. Earlier ACMA research found more than one million gambling advertisements had aired across free-to-air television and metropolitan radio during the year to April 2023.

The direction of government policy is consequently clear: gambling acquisition is increasingly being treated as a consumer-protection issue rather than simply a marketing issue.

2026 Became Australia's Regulatory Turning Point

The reforms also need to be viewed against evidence of continuing gambling harm.

The Australian Institute of Family Studies' nationally representative 2024 pilot involving 3,881 adults found that 65.1% of Australian adults had gambled during the previous 12 months, while approximately 15% were classified as experiencing some level of gambling-harm risk. Around 32% gambled at least monthly.

The situation becomes more pronounced when regular online bettors are examined.

Research involving 2,603 Australians who regularly bet online on sports or racing found that more than 70% were either at risk of, or already experiencing, gambling-related harm. Some 21.4% met the study's high-risk gambling classification.

That provides important context for why Canberra is targeting marketing and acquisition rather than relying entirely on responsible-gambling messages.

BetStop Is Becoming Central to Australia's Model

BetStop is another important part of the government's strategy.

By 30 June 2026, 65,430 people had registered with Australia's national self-exclusion system since its August 2023 launch, with 40,160 exclusions still active. Remarkably, 30,081 registrants were aged 30 or younger.

That age distribution strengthens the policy argument for tighter controls over digital acquisition channels.

ACMA has simultaneously demonstrated that self-exclusion compliance is becoming an enforcement priority. Following investigations into six wagering providers in early 2026, ACMA member Carolyn Lidgerwood said:

“Self-exclusion only works if wagering providers follow the rules.”

— Carolyn Lidgerwood, ACMA member, January 2026.

The regulator subsequently found more than 500 breaches involving Entain's Ladbrokes AU and Neds AU services, demonstrating that BetStop is not merely a voluntary responsible-gambling initiative but an increasingly enforceable component of Australia's wagering architecture.

Women, Men and the Changing Australian Gambling Audience

Australian gambling risk also remains strongly differentiated by gender and age.

Among regular online sports and racing bettors studied in 2023, 25.3% of men were classified as high risk, compared with 14.5% of women. Moderate-risk classifications were 25.3% for men and 22.2% for women.

The gender difference should not be interpreted as evidence that gambling harm is exclusively male. Rather, it indicates that prevention strategies need increasingly sophisticated demographic segmentation.

Age appears particularly important. Among regular online bettors aged 18–34, 26.1% were classified as high risk and another 25.8% as moderate risk.

For regulators, these statistics make digitally targeted advertising particularly sensitive because younger consumers are simultaneously among the audiences most familiar with mobile-first media, influencers, search and social platforms.

The Affiliate Model After January 2027

For gambling affiliates, the biggest strategic question is therefore not whether affiliate publishing disappears.

It is what affiliate publishing becomes when remuneration can no longer be structured around customer gambling activity in the same way.

A traditional model can be simplified as:

Traffic → Registration → Player Activity → Affiliate Revenue

The emerging Australian regulatory philosophy increasingly pushes the industry toward:

Content → Information → Compliant Referral → Fixed/Permitted Commercial Value

The exact commercial arrangements used after commencement will depend on the legislation, ACMA guidance, contractual interpretation and operators' compliance frameworks. Affiliates should therefore avoid assuming that every existing CPA, hybrid or fixed-placement structure is automatically prohibited; the explicit regulatory focus is commissions based on customer activity.

That distinction will matter enormously during 2027.

SWOT Analysis: Australian Gambling Affiliates in 2027

Geographic Impact: Australia Could Become an APAC Regulatory Case Study

Australia is an unusual gambling market because responsibility is distributed between federal legislation, federal agencies and state and territory regulatory systems.

The 2026 legislation strengthens the Commonwealth's influence over the digital layer of gambling - particularly advertising, interactive gambling, self-exclusion and illegal online services.

This may ultimately matter beyond Australia.

European regulators have already tightened gambling advertising and affiliate requirements in several jurisdictions, while other APAC governments are examining online gambling exposure. Australia's experiment with regulating the commercial relationship between player activity and affiliate remuneration could therefore become an important international case study.

2027 Forecast: Fewer Conversion Machines, More Gambling Media Brands

CasinoAppReview.com's base-case forecast is that 2027 will not eliminate Australian gambling affiliate marketing.

Three developments appear particularly likely.

First, operators will review affiliate contracts and attribution systems before the January commencement date.

Second, publishers heavily dependent on activity-based player revenue may need to diversify towards permitted fixed commercial arrangements, advertising, subscriptions, data services or international markets.

Third, editorial quality and compliance should become more valuable. Sites offering genuine licensing information, payment analysis, product comparisons, responsible-gambling resources and regulatory reporting have a stronger long-term proposition than thin websites designed primarily to funnel users toward gambling accounts.

There is also a more fundamental distinction for casino affiliates: offering online casino-style services to Australians is already prohibited under Australian federal law. Publishers therefore need to understand that the regulatory position of an offshore casino is not equivalent to that of an Australian-licensed wagering provider.

Conclusion: Australia Is Regulating the Economics Behind the Click

Australia's 2026 reform may ultimately prove more consequential for gambling affiliates than another restriction on when advertisements can appear.

Advertising regulation controls visibility.

Affiliate remuneration regulation controls incentives.

By prohibiting commissions based on customer activity while strengthening BetStop, digital advertising controls and enforcement against illegal gambling services, the Australian government is beginning to regulate the entire chain connecting gambling promotion, acquisition and player behavior.

For affiliates, the message heading into 2027 is consequently difficult to ignore: traffic alone is no longer the strategy.

Compliance, editorial independence, transparent commercial relationships and demonstrable consumer value are becoming part of the business model itself.

For an industry historically measured by clicks, registrations and player value, Australia is asking a much more challenging question:

What is a gambling affiliate worth when its financial incentive is no longer tied to how much the referred customer gambles?

References / Works Cited

Australian Communications and Media Authority. (2026). About the Interactive Gambling Act. ACMA – Interactive Gambling Act

Australian Communications and Media Authority. (2026, July 17). BetStop – the National Self-Exclusion Register statistics: Q4 2025–2026. ACMA – BetStop Q4 statistics

Australian Communications and Media Authority. (2026, January 29). Six wagering providers breach gambling self-exclusion rules. ACMA enforcement announcement

Australian Institute of Family Studies. (2025). National Gambling Prevalence Study Pilot 2024. AIFS National Gambling Prevalence Study

Australian Institute of Family Studies. (2025). Regular online bettors in Australia, 2023. AIFS regular online bettors research

Parliament of Australia. (2026). Interactive Gambling Amendment (Gambling Reform) Bill 2026. Parliament of Australia – Gambling Reform Bill

Parliamentary Library. (2026). Gambling advertising. Parliament of Australia. Parliamentary Library – Gambling Advertising

Parliamentary Library. (2026, August 7). Interactive Gambling Amendment (Gambling Reform) Bill 2026 and related Bill: Bills Digest No. 8, 2026–27. Parliamentary Library – Bills Digest

Queensland Government Statistician's Office. (2026). Australian gambling statistics, 41st edition. Queensland Treasury. Queensland Government – Australian Gambling Statistics