We are committed to ensuring the Victorian gambling industry complies with its regulatory obligations and operates safely, fairly, and free from criminal influence. Our Regulatory Approach – a series of frameworks, methodologies, and processes – together with our Regulatory Posture detail how we deliver on this commitment across four types of regulatory activity.
Licensing and other approvals
We help applicants understand their obligations and our expectations of them.
Intelligence, data and other information, including consultations with a wide variety of stakeholders, inform our decisions and help ensure the integrity, safety and fairness of the industry.
We conduct ourselves professionally and are transparent about the reasons for our decisions.
We proactively work to reduce ‘red tape’ and operate as efficiently as possible.
Education and engagement
We educate and regularly engage with industry participants to help them understand and meet their obligations. We provide education materials, guidance, and other resources to deepen knowledge of our industry and regulatory requirements.
We help Victorians make better informed decisions about gambling through ongoing education and community engagement.
Monitoring
We encourage and enforce compliance by actively monitoring the ability and efforts of industry participants to meet their obligations.
Ongoing analysis of intelligence, data and other information helps inform and target our regulatory responses. Through a combination of risk-based and targeted approaches, we can detect and act on non-compliance.
We continuously monitor and analyse emerging issues and trends that may impact the industry or increase gambling harm. We work with industry participants to deepen our understanding of those issues and ensure the Victorian gambling industry responds appropriately.
Enforcement
We take action that is proportionate to the risks posed and harm caused by industry non-compliance.
We support those who do the right thing.
We actively pursue and have zero tolerance for those who opportunistically or deliberately contravene their obligations and the law.
To execute our Regulatory Approach, we regularly liaise, cooperate and exchange information with key partner agencies. This includes the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), Victoria Police, Australian Federal Police, AUSTRAC, and other interstate and international regulators.
We focus on preventing harm in every element of our Regulatory Approach
Licensing and other approvals: we prioritise harm prevention in our decision-making and approvals frameworks. Applicants must demonstrate their commitment to actively safeguarding the community.
Education and engagement: we proactively engage with operators to ensure they understand gambling harm and meet their duty to care for customers and the broader community.
Monitoring: we analyse and use intelligence, data and other forms of information to target regulatory responses to high-risk areas of gambling harm. We also monitor and analyse emerging issues and trends to ensure we are aware of, and ready to act on, anything that could cause gambling harm.
Enforcement: we actively pursue, and have zero tolerance for, opportunistic or deliberate failures to protect the community. We ensure our enforcement actions are timely and proportionate to the risks posed, and harm caused, by any failures by operators to take responsibility for preventing gambling harm.
We focus on eliminating criminal influence in every element of our Regulatory Approach
Licensing and other approvals: we scrutinise each application to ensure the applicant, and the broader gambling industry, are free of criminal influence. When reviewing applications for systems, games, rules and equipment, our assessment carefully considers the risk of exploitation for money laundering and terrorism-financing.
Education and engagement: we proactively engage with operators to ensure they understand the signs of criminal influence and money laundering. We help them act on their duty to identify and report suspicious behaviour to keep their operations free from criminal influence.
Monitoring: we analyse and use intelligence, data and other forms of information to identify potential money laundering activities and criminal influence. Working closely with partner organisations, such as AUSTRAC and Victoria Police, we can rapidly identify persons and venues of interest for monitoring and act, where appropriate.
Enforcement: we actively pursue, and have zero tolerance for, opportunistic or deliberate failures to act on criminal influence. We ensure our enforcement actions are timely and proportionate to the risks posed, and harm caused, by operators that contravene their obligations to identify and prevent criminal infiltration into the Victorian gambling industry.
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