The Australian bookmaker Rob Waterhouse has faced an illegal gambling advertising conviction in Downing Centre Local Court on December 9th. As a result, he was imposed a monetary fine of AU$4,500 by the Liquor and Gaming New South Wales.
Back in 2020, the liquor and gaming regulatory body in the state of NSW revealed that it responded to reports that Rob Waterhouse was offering a promotion of five daily boosts, which provided players with the opportunity to get improved odds on up to 5 bets on a daily basis on his Twitter account and on his platform RobWaterhouse.com. As confirmed by the gambling watchdog, Mr Waterhouse, who has been mostly engaged in retail sports betting services, was a newcomer to online gambling after expanding his services into the digital world because of the shutdown experienced by racecourse betting during the Covid-19 pandemic.
At a hearing that took place at Downing Centre Local Court on December 9th, the Australian bookmaker faced charges with offences under the country’s Betting and Racing Act of 1998. Mr Waterhouse was accused of violating the law by publishing prohibited advertisements associated with gambling services.
The maximum penalty an individual charged with the offence of illegal gambling ads containing prohibited enticements for customers amounts to U$11,000.
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Mr Waterhouse pleaded guilty to the charges of illegal promotion of gambling and was fined in relation to a gambling advertisement containing a prohibited inducement that was published on his website. The advert in question was promoting the opportunity to get higher or increased odds up to five times a day. As mentioned above, Mr Waterhouse also faced allegations of promoting the same ad on Twitter.
He has the right to appeal against the sentence of the Downing Centre Local Court.
As confirmed by Valerie Griswold, the Executive Director of Investigations and Enforcement at the Liquor and Gaming NSW, such advertising was considered a breach of law because the promotions offered constituted enticements to customers only to encourage them to gamble more. The inducements were also available to be viewed by various members of the public who did not have gambling accounts at the time, including children and vulnerable people.
As explained by Ms Griswold, gambling and betting companies’ prospects of attracting more customers should not be a reason to breach the law that is there to help people stay away from gambling-related harm. She further noted that people struggling to keep their gambling habits under control would probably have a hard time resisting promotions of multiple bet boosts.
Lately, an increasing number of gambling companies have been moving to online operations. For the time being, 18 out of 29 on-course bookmakers in the state now hold an operating licence for telephone or online betting services in the NSW. One of them is Rob Waterhouse, who decided to follow the suit of other on-course bookmakers that went online in 2020 following the shutdowns of racetracks across the country because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Currently, there is a lot of competition for business, especially in the digital gambling market that doubled in size during the Covid-19 crisis, while other traditional forms of gambling have suffered a significant decline.
- Author
Daniel Williams
