Australian Regulator Fines TAB $2.7 Million for Spam and Telemarketing Breaches

Key points

• Tabcorp Holdings Limited (TAB) paid more than $2.7 million in penalties after a regulatory investigation concluded in 2025.
• Australia's communications regulator, ACMA, found multiple breaches of spam and telemarketing laws.
• TAB contacted people registered on the Do Not Call Register, a government list Australians use to block unsolicited sales calls.
• ACMA said the scale of the breaches points to "serious weaknesses" in TAB's internal compliance systems.
• Gambling marketing's heightened risk of financial harm was cited as an aggravating factor.

Tabcorp Holdings Limited, the company behind Australia's TAB betting brand, has paid more than $2.7 million in penalties after the country's communications watchdog found it repeatedly broke spam and telemarketing rules.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority, known as ACMA, enforces those rules under two laws: the Spam Act 2003, which governs unwanted commercial emails and texts, and the Do Not Call Register Act 2006, which protects people who've signed up to a government list to stop unsolicited sales calls. We first covered ACMA's enforcement activity on 24 July 2026, when Australia's online safety watchdog found serious gaps at major tech platforms.

What did TAB actually do wrong?

TAB contacted people who had already said no. Some had listed their number on the Do Not Call Register. Others had hit "unsubscribe" on marketing messages, a clear legal instruction to stop. ACMA found TAB ignored both, repeatedly.

The regulator described the pattern as evidence of "serious weaknesses in TAB's compliance systems," meaning adequate internal processes to track opt-outs simply weren't there. ACMA Chair Nerida O'Loughlin, quoted in the regulator's public statement, noted that gambling marketing carries particular weight: people exposed to unsolicited betting promotions face heightened risks of financial loss and psychological harm compared with, say, an unwanted furniture catalogue.

Should TAB customers be concerned?

If you received TAB marketing after opting out, you were on the receiving end of conduct the regulator has now penalised. Check that your number remains listed on the Do Not Call Register at donotcall.gov.au. Any further unwanted contact from a gambling operator can be reported directly to ACMA.

The penalty doesn't trigger a compensation scheme for affected individuals. ACMA's powers are civil: infringement notices and penalties, with no mechanism to redistribute those funds to consumers.

The $2.7 million figure reflects multiple separate breaches across both regimes. ACMA didn't publicly break down the split between the two laws, but each contravention under both Acts carries its own penalty structure. For any organisation running marketing campaigns, the lesson is blunt: opt-out records aren't optional bookkeeping. Real-time suppression lists must stop messages before they leave the building.

Australia has seen a run of regulatory actions against large consumer-facing businesses this year. The Origin Energy breach we reported on 23 July, involving alleged exposure of two million customer records, shows how quickly enforcement attention can land on companies that let compliance slip. TAB's case adds a different dimension: the harm here wasn't a hack. It was a failure of process that the company could have caught and fixed at any point.

Common questions

What is the Do Not Call Register?

The Do Not Call Register is a free Australian government service where residents can list their phone number to block unsolicited telemarketing calls. Businesses are legally required to check it before calling.

Can I get compensation if TAB contacted me after I opted out?

No direct compensation scheme exists. You can report the contact to ACMA, which uses complaints as evidence in future enforcement action.