The 100 – List reveals punters barred by Tabcorp
Tabcorp has banned 33 punters for accessing its services in the past 12 months, taking its total list of excluded punters to 100, as it faces regulatory scrutiny over its anti-money laundering compliance.
The number of Australian punters banned from accessing Tabcorp’s extensive retail betting network and its digital offering has surged by a third in a 12-month period,The Straight can reveal.
The Persons Not Permitted To Transact With TAB document, obtained by this publication, details the identities of 100 people who are no longer allowed to place bets with the publicly listed wagering giant.
The list includes known underworld criminals, convicted fraudsters, professional punters, sporting identities and former licenced racing participants.
Thirty-three individuals, whose names are bolded and underlined in the document, have been added to the banned list in the past year, including one of the most famous fugitives of the 21st century, with the updated dossier was distributed by head office to the operators of Tabcorp’s retail wagering network at pubs, clubs and TAB agencies.
The Straight, which is not suggesting those on the list have done anything illegal, just they are unable to transact with the wagering company, has chosen not to name those on the list out of privacy concerns.
The cohort of 100 gamblers, some of whom have been excluded for a long period of time, have all been banned due to being unable to satisfy their source of wealth or for concerns over Tabcorp’s anti money laundering compliance.
The 59-page Persons Not Permitted To Transact With TAB document displays images taken from CCTV vision of the 100 banned punters in various pubs, clubs or TABs around Australia.
One Sydney-based punter named by Tabcorp is banned from using electronic betting terminals (EBTs) but the document states he is allowed to gamble via his online TAB account.
This publication understands that is because the punter had pending bets still to be resulted at the time of the ban, which will be paid out if successful. They are not allowed to place further bets.
The new list of banned punters was issued on May 5, two days before Tabcorp publicly revealed it was under investigation by the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC).
Since the disclosure of AUSTRAC’s inquiries into the wagering group, Tabcorp’s share price has plunged 37 per cent to 73 cents on Tuesday.
It’s understood that in December 2024 Tabcorp chief executive Gillon McLachlan launched a financial crime risk transformation strategy aimed at tackling the perceived issues the company may encounter in meeting its regulatory requirements.
A spokesperson for Tabcorp said in a statement on Tuesday that the company would not comment on specific customers.
“Dealings with customers and customer accounts are governed by a range of regulations and applicable terms and conditions,” the spokesperson said.
“Our continued commitment to our obligations remains critically important.”
The Straight reported last month that at least eight gamblers had been issued notices informing them that they would no longer be permitted to bet with TAB.
We can confirm those punters’ names and images appear on the Persons Not Permitted To Transact With TAB document. Tabcorp told the punters in the notices that they fell “outside of its risk appetite”.
“This decision has been made in good faith, consistent with Tabcorp’s regulatory and compliance obligations and for the purpose of managing and mitigating risk,” the letter sent to the affected punters read.
“If you act, or attempt to act, in contravention of this notice, you may be trespassing and may be contravening applicable laws, Tabcorp and its staff reserve the right to notify law enforcement where appropriate.”
It has been suggested that some of the group of high-profile professional gamblers at the centre of the recent bans had been warned that their betting activities were being monitored by Tabcorp prior to the bans being enforced.
Decisions made by Tabcorp to ban punters who feature in the document come from its risk assessment team rather than from its trading department.
Tabcorp holds retail exclusivity to take bets in bricks and mortar venues via EBTs and over the counter in all Australian states and territories except Western Australia.
The Western Australian government has not yet privatised its wagering business, with responsibility to run the parimutuel, fixed odds and retail network falling to Racing and Wagering Western Australia.
If a banned customer is identified by a hotelier or TAB retailer to be accessing the betting terminals, Tabcorp says in the document that staff should reject or cancel the transaction.
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