Australian betting and gambling giant Tabcorp has suffered an AU$1-million fine after the competent watchdog found that the company failed to comply with some regulatory directions issued after the investigations into a system outage that took place during the Spring Racing Carnival in 2020.
The gambling company’s gambling and betting system was subject to a massive outage that continued for about 36 hours three years ago. By this, the operator violated the terms of its licence that requires its Wagering and Betting System (WBS) to be available for users at all times.
At the time, the Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission (VGCCC) launched an investigation into what happened. Tabcorp, however, is accused of repeated failures to stay in line with the probe, with the state’s gambling watchdog saying that the operator did not answer some requests for information at first. It finally answered the requests for information four months after the deadline given to it by the gambling regulatory body.
Now, the VGCCC claims that the conduct affected its ability to understand the cause of the outage and to ensure that it would not happen again. Such a situation was unacceptable for the regulator which also explained it would not tolerate such compliance failures that, eventually, resulted in the fine.
Tabcorp’s Failure to Act Accordingly Described as “Unacceptable”
The AU$1-million fine that was handed out to the Australian gambling giant is the largest-ever penalty that has been issued by Victoria’s regulatory body against Tabcorp.
Fran Thorn, who chairs the state’s gambling regulator, categorised the gambling company’s conduct as simply unacceptable and warned that the Commission would not tolerate licence holders that are not willing to cooperate in ongoing investigations. She further noted that Tabcorp failed to provide the required information regarding the business continuity, so the VGCCC had been forced to use its compulsory powers and issue directions.
As a result of the company’s failures, the Victorian gambling watchdog imposed the AU$1-million fine on Tabcorp’s subsidiary Tabcorp Wagering (VIC) Pty Ltd.
The monetary penalty stems from the fact that Tabcorp failed to voluntarily provide the required information regarding the outage that its WBS experienced on November 7th, 2020, although the predecessor of the VGCCC – the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation (VCGLR) – called for the company to do so. As now explained by the state’s gambling watchdog, Tabcorp’s conduct at the time impacted the regulator’s ability to understand the cause of the outage and gain confidence that it would not recur.
In addition, Tabcorp was found to have failed to abide by a second direction of the regulator by submitting the necessary information four months after the deadline to do so.
At the time when the fine was announced, the Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission highlighted the fact that the Australian gambling giant’s failure to comply with the aforementioned directions could have led to a maximum penalty exceeding AU$9 million.
- Author
Olivia Cole
