Northern Territory Moves to Regulate Crypto Gambling

Cryptocurrency is about to join crocs and Kakadu as one of the three defining features of Australia’s Northern Territory, with plans afoot to include crypto betting as part of the Top End’s regulated gambling industry.

The Australian Northern Territory Racing Commission (NTRC) is seeking input and feedback from gambling licensees on how the regulatory landscape might change in order to get crypto betting off the ground in the NT.

With gambling in Australia regulated by states and territories rather than at federal level, the NTRC oversees all betting interests that are licensed in the NT, including global concerns such as Betfair, Entain Group, Draft Kings and Sportsbet.

Contents of Private Document Made Public

Julian Hoskins, principal of one of Australia’s largest gambling law and regulatory consultancies, Senet, has seen a private document circulated among licensees and chose to shed light on its contents:

Any licensee, for example a sports bookmaker licensed in the Northern Territory, who wants to accept cryptocurrency for billing or paying wages needs permission to do so. And there are certain conditions attached to that.

Julian Hoskins, Senet

“It is clear from the conceptual framework that they are looking at cryptocurrency gambling and not simply exchanging [crypto] for fiat,” Hoskins added, pointing out that gamblers will most likely have to place fiat and crypto bets separately on the one platform as the two financial instruments will not be interchangeable for gambling.

Given the popularity of crypto, I imagine it would be very popular as an alternative to fiat. I think it has the potential to be quite material.

Julian Hoskins, Senet

Other States Likely to Follow Suit

Hoskins says that if this model went according to plan in the Northern Territory, gambling regulators in other states would likely follow suit, while also noting that strict identification requirements have been proposed to maintain compliance with anti-money laundering (AML) regulations. As such, gamblers will most likely have to have their crypto wallet addresses verified, with any winnings sent back to the same wallet that made the initial deposit.

According to the document, the NTRC has recommended monthly crypto deposit limits of A$2,000 for the first 12 months, with a maximum bet of A$5,000 per month.

Hoskins, who is a gambling industry lawyer, also explained that local gambling companies will be required by law to maintain crypto wallets that contain enough funds to fully collateralise customers’ wagering amounts, as is common in fiat-based gambling.

As for the tax implications of using volatile crypto assets to gamble, Hoskins said he was not sure “how that would be handled”, which suggests the NTRC is still considering such issues.

This all comes just days after the recently elected federal government outlined its approach to crypto regulation, with Treasurer Jim Chalmers announcing a “token mapping” exercise that is expected to help “identify how crypto assets and related services should be regulated”.