Australian regulator ACMA fined operator Tabcorp AU$2.7m (US$1.8m) for mass breaches of telemarketing and spam rules. The review covered February 2024 through June 2025.
Tabcorp made 351 calls to VIP customers whose numbers were on the Do Not Call Register without consent. Another 82 calls came outside permitted hours, and nearly 4,000 lacked purpose or sender information. The heaviest penalty came from email and SMS: the company sent over 217,000 messages in 16 days to customers who had already unsubscribed from marketing.
Tabcorp self-reported the breach in 2025. ACMA acknowledged this when setting the fine but called the volume and disregard for customer choice unacceptable, especially given the risks around gambling advertising. Board member Samantha Yorke said that when someone unsubscribes, it is a deliberate decision that cannot be ignored.
This is the second major fine in a year. Earlier in 2025 Tabcorp paid over AU$4m for SMS and WhatsApp messages sent without an unsubscribe option between February and May 2024. That case involved 2,598 messages without an unsubscribe button and 3,148 without sender details, plus 11 SMS sent without recipient consent.
Along with the fine, Tabcorp committed to an independent audit of its telemarketing systems and will address compliance gaps. Over the past 18 months the Australian industry has paid the regulator more than AU$12m for similar violations.
