Tabcorp Holdings Limited, a prominent wagering and media company in Australia, has been fined over AU$2.7 million (approximately US$1.8 million) by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA).
ACMA announced the penalties on Wednesday, revealing that Tabcorp breached telemarketing and spam regulations between February 2024 and June 2025, during which it made a series of illegal telemarketing calls to its VIP clientele. The investigation uncovered multiple violations, including 351 calls to phone numbers listed on the Do Not Call Register, made without obtaining prior consent. Additionally, 82 calls were made outside of the legally designated calling hours, and nearly 4,000 instances occurred where Tabcorp failed to adequately identify itself or inform customers about the purpose of the calls.
The inquiry escalated after Tabcorp voluntarily reported a significant breach in 2025, during which the company sent more than 217,000 marketing emails and SMS messages within just 16 days to customers who had opted out of those communication channels. ACMA deemed both the scale and the timing of these communications sufficient to necessitate enforcement action.
According to Australia’s Spam Act 2003, businesses must obtain consent before sending marketing messages, which also need to include a functional unsubscribe link and identify the sender.
Samantha Yorke, a member of ACMA, criticized Tabcorp’s actions as “unacceptable,” especially considering the potential dangers associated with gambling promotions and the company’s previous compliance history. She stressed the necessity of respecting consumer decisions, 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 Tabcorp's first encounter with ACMA. In 2025, the company was fined over AU$4 million following a previous violation involving non-compliant SMS and WhatsApp marketing messages sent to VIP customers. ACMA's investigation revealed that between February 1 and May 1, 2024, Tabcorp sent 2,598 SMS and WhatsApp messages without providing users an option to unsubscribe, and another 3,148 messages lacked sufficient sender information. Moreover, 11 SMS messages were sent without the necessary consent between February 15 and April 29, 2024.
In determining the latest financial penalty, ACMA took into account Tabcorp's voluntary self-reporting and acknowledged that the unsolicited messages were dispatched within a constrained 16-day timeframe, directed only at customers who had opted out of specific marketing forms, not all marketing overall.
Alongside the monetary penalty, Tabcorp agreed to a court-enforceable undertaking, which requires an independent review of its telemarketing systems and the implementation of corrective measures to rectify compliance deficiencies.
In recent months, ACMA reported that businesses across the industry have collectively faced over AU$12 million in penalties for spam and telemarketing infringements. Earlier this year, ACMA also reprimanded Tabcorp for violating self-exclusion regulations, resulting in a penalty of AU$112,680 and a court-enforceable commitment to improve compliance.
