Tabcorp pays $2.7m for telemarketing breaches

• ACMA has fined Tabcorp Holdings (TAB) more than $2.7 million for multiple telemarketing and spam law breaches.
• Breaches included calls to Do Not Call Register numbers and marketing messages sent to customers who had unsubscribed.
• It is ACMA’s second spam penalty against TAB, following a $4 million fine in 2025.

Australian betting giant Tabcorp Holdings (TAB) has paid more than $2.7 million in penalties after the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) found multiple breaches of spam and telemarketing laws.

The regulator found the conduct took place between February 2024 and June 2025 and involved thousands of unlawful calls and messages to VIP customers.

Repeated call breaches

The ACMA found that TAB made telemarketing calls to VIP customers that included 351 calls to numbers on the Do Not Call Register without consent, and 82 calls made outside permitted hours. Nearly 4,000 further calls were made without TAB properly identifying itself as the caller or stating the purpose of the call.

The regulator also acted after TAB self-reported in 2025 that it had sent more than 217,000 marketing emails and SMS messages over a 16-day period to customers who had unsubscribed from specific marketing channels.

Authority member Samantha Yorke said the conduct was unacceptable, particularly given the risks associated with gambling advertising and TAB’s recent compliance history.

Samantha Yorke, Authority Member at the ACMA, said:

“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.”

Second spam penalty

This is the ACMA’s second spam enforcement action against TAB, following a penalty of more than $4 million issued in 2025 for non-compliant SMS and WhatsApp messages sent to VIP customers in 2024.

In determining the latest penalty, the ACMA took into account that the conduct was self-reported, restricted to a 16-day period, and involved customers who had withdrawn consent to a specific marketing channel rather than opting out of all marketing.

Alongside the financial penalties, the ACMA has accepted a court-enforceable undertaking requiring TAB to conduct an independent review of its telemarketing systems, implement improvements, and provide regular compliance reports. This sits alongside a separate court-enforceable undertaking, executed in May 2025, already in force from the regulator’s previous action.

Ms Yorke said:

“The scale and range of these breaches point to serious weaknesses in TAB’s compliance systems. The ACMA expects TAB to fix these issues, and we will be watching closely to ensure it meets its obligations.”

Tabcorp said it had cooperated fully with the investigation. A company spokesperson said the operator would continue working with regulators as it carries out its wider compliance transformation.

Wider compliance pressure

Businesses have paid more than $12 million in penalties for spam and telemarketing breaches in Australia over the past 18 months, underlining the regulator’s tightening focus on marketing conduct across sectors. Under Australian law, businesses must not contact numbers on the Do Not Call Register without consent, must only call during permitted hours, must clearly identify themselves, and must not send marketing messages to people who have unsubscribed.

Full details of the investigation, infringement notice and undertaking are available on the ACMA’s website.

The penalty adds to a run of recent scrutiny for Tabcorp. The operator is separately facing an AUSTRAC enforcement probe over anti-money laundering failures, and was fined $158,400 for illegal in-play tennis bets earlier this year in its third such breach since 2021.

Rival operator Entain also recently faced ACMA scrutiny, accepting an 18-month court-enforceable undertaking over BetStop self-exclusion breaches. Separately, Australia’s federal government has introduced a bill to cap gambling advertising, though its passage through the Senate remains uncertain.

With multiple undertakings now in force and its compliance systems under active regulatory watch, Tabcorp’s next reporting cycle is likely to face close attention from both the ACMA and AUSTRAC.