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The credit card ban got all the coverage. Fair enough — it was the bigger story.
But the same law that killed credit cards for online betting on 11 June 2024 also killed crypto deposits, and hardly anyone noticed. Buried in the detail, mentioned in passing, gone.
Which leaves a lot of Australians genuinely unsure where they stand.
Two Laws, Doing Quite Different Things
The foundation is the Interactive Gambling Act 2001. Parliament passed it on 29 June 2001 and the ACMA runs it.
Common misconception: it doesn’t ban online gambling. It bans certain types. Online casino games, online poker, in-play sports betting, and any wagering outfit operating without an Australian licence. Bet on the footy before kickoff with a licensed provider and you’re fine.
The thing worth understanding is who the Act is aimed at. Operators. Not you.
No Australian has ever been prosecuted for logging into an offshore site, because there’s no offence to prosecute. The illegality sits entirely on the other side of the transaction.
Then 2023 happened. The Interactive Gambling Amendment (Credit and Other Measures) Act got Royal Assent on 11 December that year, with a six-month runway for banks before it bit on 11 June 2024.
The Ban Is Wider Than Its Name
“Credit and Other Measures” — the other measures are where crypto lives.
Banned for online wagering as of June 2024: credit cards, credit-linked digital wallets, and digital currency. Bitcoin included. Everything else in that category included.
Lotteries and keno got carved out, which is why your Powerball ticket still goes through on a credit card. Slightly odd carve-out, but there it is.
ACMA started warning consumers on 22 May 2024, a few weeks ahead of commencement. Compliance has been high since. A desktop review in March 2025 turned up 50 licensed services still mentioning banned methods in their T&Cs — sloppy paperwork rather than actual breaches, by the look of it.
There’s a government review of the whole thing scheduled for sometime after June 2026.
Right, So Is It Legal or Not?
Depends what you’re asking. Three questions hide inside that one.
Using crypto at a licensed Australian bookmaker? No. Flat prohibition since June 2024. If an Australian-licensed site offers you a Bitcoin deposit button, something has gone badly wrong on their end.
Playing online casino games with crypto? Those games were already off the table for operators under the IGA. Payment method doesn’t enter into it.
An individual Australian using an offshore crypto casino? You’re not committing an offence. The operator is. That asymmetry is the whole structure of Australian online gambling law.
It cuts both ways though. No offence means no prosecution, sure — but it also means no regulator who’ll take your call when a withdrawal vanishes into review and stays there.
What You’re Actually Giving Up
ACMA blocks sites. Regularly. The most recent round of blocking requests to Australian ISPs went out in September 2026, and there’ll be more.
So availability itself is unstable. Beyond that:
No Australian body will mediate a payout dispute
BetStop, the national self-exclusion register, covers licensed wagering only
Crypto transactions can’t be reversed, and there’s no chargeback equivalent
Offshore licences range from meaningfully supervised to basically decorative
That last point does most of the damage. People see “licensed” and stop reading.
Anyone weighing up platforms like levelup casino is dealing with exactly these gaps — they apply across the board to offshore operators, regardless of how polished the site looks. Branding tells you nothing. The licensing jurisdiction tells you something.
Ten Minutes of Checking
If you’re going to look anyway, do this much:
Verify the licence number. Not the badge in the footer — the number, on the regulator’s own register. Curaçao, Malta and the Isle of Man all publish searchable lists. Takes two minutes and rules out a surprising number of sites.
Read the withdrawal terms first. Before depositing, not after. Caps, processing windows, whether crypto payouts route back to the originating wallet.
See if games credit their studios. Named providers can be cross-checked. “In-house” with no further detail can’t be checked at all, which is rather the point.
Ask support something specific. Not a generic query — ask about withdrawal limits on your preferred method. How fast and how clearly they answer tells you more than any review.
Find the maximum bet rule for bonuses. Exceed it while bonus funds are live and most operators void the winnings. People find this out at the worst possible moment.
Expect KYC. Crypto doesn’t exempt anyone from identity verification at a serious operator. Assuming otherwise is the single most common source of withdrawal complaints.
The Tax Bit Catches People Out
Recreational gambling winnings generally aren’t taxed in Australia. Crypto plays by different rules.
The ATO treats cryptocurrency as a CGT asset. Disposing of it triggers a capital gains event — and “disposing” includes converting it, spending it, or swapping it for another token.
Which means depositing Bitcoin you bought six months ago at a different price is a disposal. Separate question from whether you won or lost at the tables. Entirely separate.
Worth noting too: Australian crypto exchanges have been under AUSTRAC regulation since April 2018, so verification happens on the way in as well.
Where That Leaves You
Australia ended up somewhere unusual. Operators face hard prohibition. Players face none. Enforcement runs through payment rails and ISP blocking rather than going after individuals.
June 2024 settled the licensed-market question for good. Everything crypto-related now sits offshore, outside the regulatory perimeter, without the protections that come with being inside it.
Working out which specific protection you’re missing beats any blanket answer about whether it’s “legal.”
