Unibet, one of the largest online sports betting brands operating on a worldwide scale, has received a significant fine from the Australian Liquor & Gaming Control Board. This comes after the site was found violating the gambling laws maintained in New South Wales. However, the illegal actions weren’t completed directly through Unibet. It was their subsidiary, BetChoice, which Unibet has operated since acquiring in 2012. BetChoice was found providing illegal gambling inducements, meaning that unlawful advertisements were maintained. When the Sydney Downing Centre Local Court was informed of these actions by the Liquor & Gaming Control Board, Unibet received the ultimate fine of 25,000.00 Australian Dollars.
One of these illegally maintained advertisements included promotions on the BetChoice homepage. It was offering players $50.00 in a cash reward for referring a friend to their services. BetChoice went another step further, purchasing an advertisement on an online newspaper’s website. That illicit ad stated players could deposit $20.00 and win $100.00. However, it’s illegal under the legislation implemented by ALGC to provide advertisements that would help allure players to gamble activity without a prior account. Since these advertisements were to acquire new players, the actions of Unibet’s subsidiary is illegal in Australia.
Potential Other Fines
The Australian Liquor & Gaming Control Board for New South Wales in Australia updated their legislation two weeks before this finding. Subsequently, Unibet could face additional fines under these updated laws. There’s the chance that each offence of a new client being acquired through these promotions will result in a $110,000.00 fine. There could be hundreds of new players from BetChoice’s advertisements, which could prompt millions in damaging penalties to Unibet.
The ALGC implemented this fine to display their power to all other operators in Australia. Unibet is set up for disaster with the decisions made by BetChoice. Australia will make an example out of this sports betting site, showing new casinos that illegal actions won’t be tolerated. It should be noted that Unibet is also facing a $525,000.00 fine from Dutch Regulators. It’s unknown what the results of BetChoice’s decisions will be, but it’s almost guaranteed that Unibet will look to overturn this fine going forward.
