The Australian Communications and Media Authority found 56 breaches of the Interactive Gambling Act 2001 and referred 187 domains to internet service providers for blocking during the April-to-June 2026 quarter. The regulator's report, published August 21, also records 18 formal warnings and provides one of the clearest recent measurements of Australia's campaign against illegal offshore gambling.
ACMA considered 465 enquiries and complaints and completed 30 investigations involving 76 gambling websites. The figures show the difference between public reports, investigated sites and formal breach findings: not every enquiry becomes an investigation, while one investigation or website can involve more than one legal issue. The quarterly totals should therefore be compared category by category rather than blended into one headline count.
Thirty Investigations Covered 76 Sites
The 30 completed investigations covered a wider group of 76 sites, reflecting how one operator or service network can use multiple domains. Investigations may also examine related brands or sites together when the conduct and ownership evidence overlap. That structure helps explain why domain counts can be much higher than the number of formal case files.
ACMA's task is evidence-intensive because offshore services can change addresses and present limited corporate information. Investigators need to establish that a service was accessible to Australian customers and determine whether it offered a prohibited product, unlicensed regulated gambling or unlawful advertising. A site design alone may be suggestive, but the legal finding must connect the service to the relevant provision.
The 56 Breaches Fall Into Three Groups
Of the 56 findings, 30 concerned the provision of prohibited interactive gambling services to Australian customers. Another 24 concerned unlicensed regulated interactive gambling services, while two involved advertising prohibited or unlicensed gambling. These categories describe different conduct and should not all be shortened to illegal online casino operation.
Prohibited interactive services include online casino-style products that cannot lawfully be offered to Australian customers. Regulated interactive wagering may be legal when provided by a properly licensed business, but becomes a breach when offered without the required Australian licence. Advertising provisions address the promotion that helps those services reach customers even when the publisher does not operate the gambling platform.
Eighteen Formal Warnings Add a Direct Consequence
ACMA issued 18 formal warnings during the quarter. The report lists providers associated with brands including Lukki Casino, Free Spinz, ACO96, Lucky Start, 7Signs, Freshbet, Spinrise, Wildsino, Jacks Club, Leon, Gambiva, TenoBet, Zizobet and Metaspins. A warning records the regulator's finding and puts the recipient on notice about future conduct.
A formal warning is not the same as a court penalty, infringement notice or enforceable undertaking. Its significance lies in the documented compliance history and the expectation that the provider stop the breach. If conduct continues, ACMA can consider other enforcement and disruption measures available under the Australian framework.
Why 187 Domains Were Referred for Blocking
Website blocking operates at the domain level, so the quarterly total can exceed the number of investigated businesses. Mirrors, replacement addresses and affiliate sites can all create separate routes to an illegal offer. Referring 187 domains helps disrupt both direct access and parts of the online distribution system that continually regenerate traffic.
Most blocked sites in the quarter were casino-style services offering products such as blackjack, roulette, poker and slots, according to ACMA. Some also offered wagering without an Australian licence. That mix demonstrates why investigators classify each service carefully: a single site can contain both prohibited casino products and activities that would require a local wagering licence.
Complaints Are Only the Start of the Process
The 465 enquiries and complaints provide market intelligence, but they are not 465 confirmed breaches. Some reports may fall outside ACMA's jurisdiction, duplicate existing matters or lack enough information to proceed. Others can help identify new domains or show that a service previously warned or blocked has returned under another address.
A strong complaint process helps the regulator prioritise limited investigative resources. Consumers, competitors and public-interest groups can identify services that automated monitoring misses. The quarterly report improves transparency by showing how many matters were considered and how that pipeline translated into completed investigations and enforcement outcomes.
Advertising Oversight Produced No New Investigation
In the separate gambling-advertising stream, ACMA considered 32 enquiries and complaints and completed 11 assessments. None of those assessments led to a new formal investigation during the quarter. That result should not be described as evidence that every advertisement complied; it means the completed assessments did not meet the threshold for opening a further investigation in that period.
Advertising rules remain an important part of the regulator's remit because broadcast and online promotions can expose audiences to gambling at restricted times or direct them to unlawful services. Quarterly numbers can vary significantly depending on major events, complaint patterns and whether earlier investigations reach completion.
Blocking Is a Disruption Tool, Not a Final Removal
An ISP block makes a domain harder to reach from Australia but does not delete the underlying website. Offshore operators can attempt to move, which is why ACMA publishes repeated rounds of blocking. The strategy works by increasing instability and acquisition cost while warning consumers that the service falls outside the permitted Australian framework.
The 187-domain figure is therefore best read as work performed during the quarter, not as a permanent count of businesses removed from the global internet. Sustained effectiveness depends on finding replacement domains, engaging other intermediaries and ensuring that licensed domestic services can be distinguished from offshore sites using similar marketing language.
What the Data Means for Industry
Licensed wagering operators need to maintain clear evidence of Australian authorisation and ensure that products offered under their brands stay within licence conditions. Publishers and affiliates should verify the status of every service they promote. A foreign licence or professional-looking website does not establish that an offer is lawful for Australian customers.
Payment providers, hosts and platform businesses may also receive enquiries connected with disruption activity. A documented process for responding to regulator notices can reduce delays and prevent continued support for a service already found to be unlawful. The quarterly data suggests that illegal supply remains broad enough to require cooperation across the internet ecosystem.
Comparing this quarter with later reports will show whether warning and blocking volumes are rising, but direct comparisons should account for timing. Investigations completed in one quarter may have started earlier, and a large network of related domains can move the blocking total sharply. Trend analysis is most useful when it follows several periods and separates consumer complaints, concluded cases and disruption actions.
Bottom Line
ACMA's April-to-June 2026 report records 56 Interactive Gambling Act breaches, 18 formal warnings and 187 domains referred for blocking. The regulator considered 465 enquiries and complaints and completed 30 investigations involving 76 sites. Thirty breaches involved prohibited interactive gambling, 24 involved unlicensed regulated services and two concerned advertising.
The figures show a continuing focus on casino-style offshore sites and the infrastructure that helps them reach Australians. They also show why no single metric tells the full story. Complaints, investigations, legal findings, warnings and blocked domains measure different stages of enforcement, together revealing the scale and persistence of Australia's anti-offshore gambling program.
