Straight Up –  POCT lotto, a Kiwi betting shake-up and a PointsBet palaver

In this edition:

• Contrasting states and confounding statements – POCT projection lotto rolls on in NSW and Queensland
• Kiwis’ geoblock windfall – overseas bookies banned, triggering $100 million Entain payment
• PointsBet takeover hangs in balance after farcical voting error
• Influencers in the sights of regulator over gambling promotion
• Basketball betting bill a forerunner to HKJC licence

The two greatest forces shaping wagering in Australia over the foreseeable future are regulation and taxation. That matters to the thoroughbred industry as it relies on wagering, and increasingly wagering taxes, to sustain itself.

We’ve written a lot about Point Of Consumption Tax on The Straight.

Given that the various states and territories are projecting to receive $1.24 billion in POCT/Betting Tax revenue in the coming financial year, a revenue stream that didn’t exist eight years ago, it is a very important part of the whole wagering eco-system.

It represents around 0.85 per cent of overall state taxation revenue, which in a time where a lot of states are operating in the red, has been an important addition to their bottom line.

Accordingly, racing administrators have sought to tie their state funding models to a guaranteed cut of revenue which they help generate. This varies from 30 per cent in New South Wales to 80 per cent in Queensland.

Each state and territory government releases its four-year “forward estimates” with its budget, which racing administrators tell us they place little faith in when it comes to estimating their own cut of the revenue.  

And it’s little wonder. Some of the treasury estimations looks less like educated guesses and more like throwing darts.

In the Queensland budget this week, the new government looks to have followed the previous government’s lead of just tying POCT projections to population growth, seemingly ignoring the fact that wagering turnover has tanked 15 per cent in the past couple of years.

In New South Wales, Treasury revised down POCT projections for the first time ever, conceding it had been around $130 million out in its projections from a couple of years back. But then it threw in baffling reasoning that it was due “consumers transitioning back to physical locations following the pandemic”.

You couldn’t make this stuff up! Well, you could, and possibly get a job in a state treasury.

Meanwhile, three years after the ACT put up its POCT to a giddy 25 per cent, it is collecting the same amount of Betting Tax as it did when it was 20 per cent. The reason, according to the Budget, was that the market for online betting has “matured”.

Regulation is about to have a major impact in New Zealand, with overseas betting companies to be banned from offering services to Kiwi punters from as soon as next week.

The legislative net enshrines Entain’s virtual monopoly through its two brands, TAB NZ and Betcha, triggering a $100 million payment from the wagering giant, much of which will flow back through to racing.

We chatted to New Zealand journalist Michael Guerin about the imposition of geo-blocking and how it will likely impact both on NZ racing and the Kiwi wagering ecosystem, in this week’s edition of Straight Talk. Subscribe or listen on YouTube, Apple, Spotify or Podbean.

The PointsBet takeover saga has turned into somewhat of a farce over the past 24 hours. Japanese-owned MIXI looked set to finally win the $400 million battle for the Australian wagering company when it was announced it had won the nod of PointsBet shareholders on Wednesday.

But betr, which has been running a rival bid, and owned 19.9 per cent of PointsBet, demanded a recount. By Thursday morning, Computershare, which conducted the shareholder vote, admitted a system error, and then ruled that MIXI’s deal had been voted down.

It might not matter, MIXI has an off-market offer ready to roll – but this latest twist has kept betr in the fight and added a shambolic hue to what had already been quite a rollercoaster.

Back to the regulation space, Australian Communications and Media Authority, which has been handing out fines to bookies like an officious parking officer in recent months, has warned social media influencers over promotion of non-regulated betting sites.

Meanwhile, the Hong Kong Jockey Club looks set to offer betting on basketball, which when you consider Hong Kongers already spend more money betting on soccer than they do racing, could have some interesting outcomes.

Thanks for reading The Straight.     

Regards

Bren O’Brien

Managing Editor and Founder

The Straight