Albanese Government Interactive Gambling Amendment Delivers Major Win for Australia’s Small Business Lottery Retailers

After years of sustained advocacy for members highlighting the importance of a highly regulated and consistent lottery industry model, the Albanese Government moved amendments in the interactive gambling act on Wednesday night that will have the effect of banning a range of shadow market lottery products including foreign matched lotteries, online Keno and changes to Trade promotion lotteries. ALNA had worked closely with the Charitable Lotteries Alliance on this effort.

This is a huge win for our members that ALNA has been fighting for many years.

The governments legislation passed the Senate Wednesday night and it is a major victory for the thousands of small businesses and their employees who depend on a well-regulated lotteries sector to run their businesses in the communities they serve.

It was disappointing to see amendments moved at the last minute by a Member of the Opposition that would have been incredibly harmful for our retailers. These last minute amendments without any industry consultation would have made mandatory data checks necessary before selling lottery products and would have banned credit card payments for all lotteries. These had to be seen off on the floor. Fortunately, one of these was later withdrawn and the other was not supported by the Labor government, with the strong support of One Nation and the Greens – and was subsequently voted down.

Members should be aware how important these reforms in schedule 4 of the bill were for your businesses. Without these important reforms, the lotteries model we rely on, and its long-standing social licence would have been at risk.

The effort and engagement required to get these types of reforms through is not always well understood and it requires engagement right across the parliament, often at the last minute between meetings, and late into the night, so we thank the Albanese Government for its leadership on the lottery amendments in Schedule 4, as well as other parties like One Nation who backed us unanimously and strongly again, just as they did in 2018, and also individual members of the parliament and advisers to them who we engaged with a lot like One Nation Senator’s Pauline Hanson and Senator Sean Bell, Nationals Deputy Leader and MP Darren Chester, and the Nationals David Littleproud MP, and others who listened when it mattered for our members. We especially acknowledge the efforts of the Minister for Communications Anika Wells in advocating for our cause.

We acknowledge this support sometimes takes courage, especially when there is a diversity of opinion in individual parties about issues but small business is vulnerable and it needs support when it matters, and it mattered Wednesday for the more than 4,000 small businesses across Australia who rely on income generated by state-licensed lotteries. These businesses employ an estimated 20,000 people and, particularly in regional and rural communities, are often important local businesses and community hubs.

For ALNA and its members, this is a win that has been years in the making.