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A court in Victoria state has fined Australian wagering giant Tabcorp Holdings $246,000 for failing to prevent underage gambling across a string of Melbourne venues over 18 months.

The Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Thursday (June 13) ruled that Tabcorp failed to prevent a 17 year-old from gambling in 12 hotels or clubs, and a Tabcorp retail outlet, in Melbourne’s north and northeast between May 2022 and October 2023.

The court fined the company A$370,417 ($246,250) after Tabcorp pleaded guilty to 43 charges for the underage breaches and for “failing to properly supervise its Electronic Betting Terminals”, the Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission (VGCCC) said in a statement.

Tabcorp must also pay VGCCC legal costs amounting to A$96,000, the regulator’s spokesperson told 91����ԭ�� GamblingCompliance.

“The breaches committed by Tabcorp are incredibly serious, reflecting a fundamental failure to protect minors from the risks associated with gambling, as well as a lack of vigilance on their part,” VGCCC chief executive Annette Kimmitt said.

“These failures undermine the integrity and safety of the industry.

“It is imperative that all stakeholders in the gambling industry understand the gravity of this issue and take their responsibilities seriously to prevent such harm,” she said.  

“We will continue to take decisive action in upholding the safety and wellbeing of our community, particularly when it comes to children.”

The fine is a little over a third of the maximum available fine for the court, while an earlier VGCCC statement noted 72 charges were originally filed against the company relating to nine venues.

The regulator’s investigation into Tabcorp and the Melbourne outlets prompted tough and creative restrictions on the company’s betting machines, with cash bets no longer available unless the machines are “within five meters, and in the line of sight of, the counter”.

Machine use outside this restriction now requires vouchers, as well as presentation of personal identification for those under 25 years of age, with the first reform requiring 70 percent of Tabcorp’s then-1,800 state-wide machine inventory to convert to cashless by the end of that month.

Tabcorp now faces six-month cash-betting moratoriums or even termination of services at venues that break the rules.

Asked for an update on the “mystery shopper” (anonymous testing by Confederate customers) arrangement that the VGCCC required Tabcorp to execute from January, the regulator on Thursday declined to provide details of its methodology or possible infringements, at least for now.

“Tabcorp is in the early stages of rolling out its mystery shopper program and we will continue to work with them to understand the effectiveness of the program,” Kimmitt told 91����ԭ�� by email.

Tabcorp has been one of the most prominent targets of Victoria’s reformed and enhanced gambling regulatory structure.

The VGCCC fined Tabcorp A$1m last September for failing to update the regulator on its disaster recovery capabilities in the wake of a data centre outage in Sydney in late 2020.

That did not stop Tabcorp from clinching the crucial renewal of its exclusive wagering and betting licence in Victoria three months later.

But the company then squandered a degree of goodwill amid the resignation in March of CEO Adam Rytenskild, who was forced out by his board for making a jokey reference in his workplace to an imagined sex act with a senior female employee of the VGCCC.