Gambling addiction help in Australia

Verified helplines

Helplines and online chat

One number covers the country: 1800 858 858. It is answered 24 hours a day, is free and confidential, and calls are not listed on your phone bill. An interpreter can be organised through the helpline. The same number routes you to your state's service — Gambler's Help in Victoria, GambleAware in New South Wales.

Chat, email and SMS counselling run around the clock through Gambling Help Online, which is the same national service in text form.

Two other numbers are worth having. In Victoria, Gambler's Help Youthline on 1800 262 376 takes calls from people under 25, 24 hours a day, anonymously and free. If something goes wrong with a self-exclusion registration, BetStop answers on 1800 238 786. Numbers for other countries are listed in the helplines directory.

Self-exclusion

Australia has one national register, BetStop, and it covers online and phone wagering only. Pokies venues, casinos and betting shops run their own schemes, state by state.

BetStop — online and phone wagering

BetStop is an Australian Government service, operated by the ACMA, and it is free. Registration takes about five minutes and covers every wagering provider licensed in Australia in one step. Once you are on the register, those providers must not open an account for you, accept a bet from you or send you marketing, and they must close the accounts you already have and refund any credit.

You choose a period from three months up to a lifetime, and you can extend it at any time. You cannot shorten it. Coming off early is possible only after at least three months, requires a statutory declaration that you have consulted a counsellor or a GP, and removal then takes a further seven days. During registration you can nominate up to five support people, who are notified if your registration changes.

Venues, casinos and TAB outlets

In New South Wales every gambling venue must offer a self-exclusion scheme, either its own or an external provider such as Betsafe or ClubSafe. In Victoria the venue programs are run by the Australian Hotels Association on (03) 9654 3491 and Community Clubs Victoria on (03) 8851 4949; Crown Melbourne handles its own through the PlaySafe Centre on 1800 801 098. Other countries' schemes are compared in self-exclusion by country.

Blocking gambling payments and sites

Most Australian banks will decline gambling transactions on request, and the delay before a block can be lifted is the part that matters — it removes the option of a two-minute reversal at 2am.

Bank Australia, Bank of Queensland, Bendigo Bank, Macquarie Bank, Suncorp and Virgin Money block gambling on their credit cards automatically, though their debit cards may still go through. No bank catches everything: blocks work on the merchant category code, so BPAY payments, ATM withdrawals and some recurring transactions can slip past.

Device-level blocking is the other half. Software that covers phones, tablets and computers is compared in blocking apps for iOS and Android.

Free treatment and counselling

Gambling counselling in Australia is publicly funded and free to the person using it. There is no fee, no referral and no diagnosis needed to start.

In Victoria, Gambler's Help provides free, confidential counselling by phone, face to face, live chat and email, along with free financial counselling and peer connection for people who want to talk to someone who has been through it. In New South Wales the equivalent is GambleAware, funded through the state's Responsible Gambling Fund, with counselling and financial counselling delivered by local providers. Both are reached on 1800 858 858.

Financial counselling is worth using early rather than last. If gambling has already produced debt, the steps are set out in what to do about gambling debt.

Support for family and friends

The same helpline number, 1800 858 858, is for family members too, and Gambler's Help runs counselling specifically for partners, parents and friends of someone gambling — you do not need the person who gambles to agree, or to know.

Australia has no family-initiated exclusion order: nobody else can put a person on BetStop or into a venue scheme on their behalf. What you can do is be nominated as one of the five support people on their BetStop registration, which means you are told if they try to come off the register.

If you are working out how to raise it at all, see how to help someone with a gambling problem and the signs of gambling addiction.

Gambling law and the regulator

Online gambling is regulated federally by the Australian Communications and Media Authority under the Interactive Gambling Act 2001. Everything land-based — pokies, casinos, TAB outlets — is regulated by the state or territory: the Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission in Victoria, Liquor & Gaming NSW in New South Wales, and their counterparts elsewhere.

Betting on sport and racing with an Australian-licensed operator is legal. Online casino games are not: the Government states that BetStop does not apply to them because they are illegally provided in Australia. Sites offering them to Australians are operating outside the licensing system, which also means they ignore self-exclusion registers and have no complaints process you can use.

The legal gambling age is 18 throughout the country. In Victoria a person under 18 must not enter or remain in a gaming machine area, and in New South Wales it is illegal for anyone under 18 to enter a casino. If you are not sure where your own gambling sits, the self-test takes a few minutes.