ACMA: BetStop Reached Almost 26K Registrants in June

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has released new statistics about the performance of BetStop, Australia’s national self-exclusion register. The latest report covers the register’s performance in June and highlights an influx of new registrants.

According to the report, 25,972 people in total had opted to exclude themselves from gambling to the end of the month. As of June 30, 21,381 people maintained active exclusions, meaning that 4,591 had either completed their exclusion period or canceled their exclusions early.

The majority of BetStop users, according to official data, are from New South Wales (8,055). Victoria, on the other hand, was second in terms of exclusions, recording 7,020 registrants. Queensland took the third spot with 5,236 registrants.

Western Australia, South Australia, the Northern Territory, the Australian Capital Territory and Tasmania have, to the end of June, 2,822, 1,612, 188, 405 and 634 registrations respectively.

Many BetStop Users Are Younger Players

Approximately half (48%) of the registrants were younger than 30. A third of them (31%) were in the 31-40 age group.

The majority (40%) had selected an exclusion period of between 3 months and two years. Almost the same number (39%) had opted to exclude themselves from gambling for a lifetime. Another 17% chose a period of 3 months. The 2-5 years and 5+ years periods were selected by 3% and 1% of all registrants respectively.  

In June, a total of 1,590 new people signed up for BetStop, opting to exclude themselves from gambling. This figure marks a month-on-month decline of 7.3% and a year-on-year decrease of 10.7%.

BetStop was launched in August last year in an effort to tackle Australia’s concerning problem gambling rates. The register mirrors similar practices from other modern regulated jurisdictions.

By the end of October 2023, over 10,000 players had excluded themselves from gambling, using BetStop to get their habits under control.