Regulations are getting tougher, and point-of-consumption (POC)...

Regulations are getting tougher, and point-of-consumption (POC) taxes are starting to hit the industry hard. With an election year on the horizon, gambling tends to become an easy target for politicians looking for a quick win. Historically, gambling has held up well during tough economic times, but it looks like people are now choosing to spend their money on multiple streaming services instead of placing weekend bets.

The National Self-Exclusion Register (NSER) now has 28,000 people signed up, with 80% of them under 40 and 40% choosing to exclude themselves permanently. To put that in perspective, the Northern Territory Racing Commission (NTRC) only had about 2,500 self-exclusions before the NSER came into play, showing just how much this has impacted online gambling. For now, this regulation only applies to online bookmakers and hasn’t yet touched slot machines or lotteries.

It feels like the market is overreacting a bit. BBT and TAH are damn good value at the moment, IMHO. TAH has long-term licenses that are mostly already paid for, and if they start to fear the online impact to much, they do already own 20% of Dabble (which appears to be doing a stellar job), and Tom Rundle has said he is happy for TAH to buy more of them to fuel Dabble's international market push. I wouldn't put it past them, just buying that tech to catch up.