Tabcorp Holdings Limited, one of the largest wagering and media firms in Australia, has faced penalties exceeding AU$2.7 million (US$1.8 million) from the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) due to breaches of telemarketing and spam regulations.
On Wednesday, ACMA announced that the violations occurred over a span of 16 months. The authority's investigation, which examined activities from February 2024 to June 2025, uncovered multiple unlawful telemarketing calls directed at VIP customers. The breaches included 351 calls made to numbers on the Do Not Call Register without prior consent, 82 calls made outside permitted hours, and nearly 4,000 calls wherein the company failed to properly identify itself or provide the call's purpose.
The inquiry was prompted by a self-reported violation by Tabcorp in 2025, where the company disclosed it had sent over 217,000 marketing emails and SMS messages in just 16 days to customers who had opted out of those communications. ACMA deemed the scale and timing of these messages significant enough to justify enforcement actions.
Under Australia’s Spam Act 2003, businesses must obtain consent prior to sending marketing messages, and these messages must include a valid unsubscribe option along with sender details.
Samantha Yorke, a member of ACMA, criticized Tabcorp’s actions as “unacceptable,” especially considering the potential risks associated with gambling advertising and Tabcorp’s prior compliance history. She stressed the importance of honoring consumer choices, stating, “When people join the Do Not Call register or unsubscribe from marketing messages, they are making a clear choice. Those choices must be respected – especially given the heightened risks of financial loss and psychological harm from gambling marketing.”
This penalty is not the first for Tabcorp. It follows a previous enforcement action in 2025 when the company was fined over AU$4 million for sending non-compliant SMS and WhatsApp marketing messages to VIP clients. An investigation revealed that from February 1 to May 1, 2024, Tabcorp sent 2,598 SMS and WhatsApp messages without allowing customers to unsubscribe. In total, 3,148 messages lacked “adequate sender information,” and 11 messages were sent without consent during that timeframe.
In light of the recent violations, ACMA considered Tabcorp’s voluntary self-reporting, the concentrated timeframe of the unsolicited messages, and the fact that they were directed to customers who had only withdrawn consent for specific channels. Alongside the monetary fine, Tabcorp agreed to a court-enforceable undertaking requiring the company to conduct an independent review of its telemarketing practices and implement remedial measures to close compliance gaps.
The industry as a whole has paid over AU$12 million in penalties related to spam and telemarketing breaches in the past 18 months, according to ACMA. Earlier this year, ACMA also penalized Tabcorp AU$112,680 for violations of the country’s self-exclusion rules, again accompanied by a court-enforceable undertaking.
