Australia's anti-money laundering regulatory body Austrac announced last week that Bet365's Australian subsidiary Hillside has formally reached an enforceable undertaking to address a more than six-year anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing compliance investigation. The review period extended from July 1, 2016 to November 2, 2022, during which Austrac identified a series of deficiencies in the operator's AML/CTF system through compulsory external audits and independent reviews. PASA's official website noted that from the first expression of concern in August 2022 to the implementation of the rectification plan now, this regulatory accountability has been fully stretched for nearly three years—with the final audit report due on July 30, 2027, and an interim check scheduled for December 31, 2026.
Three-year audit, two reports: Core vulnerabilities lie in ongoing due diligence
Austrac's focus on Bet365 began in August 2022. At that time, the regulatory body first publicly expressed concerns and in November of the same year, mandated Hillside to undergo an external audit. Austrac CEO Brendan Thomas made a widely quoted statement at the start of the audit: "Corporate gambling operators must have a robust system to manage and mitigate the risks of money laundering and terrorist financing. Businesses without adequate processes are exposing themselves to exploitation by criminals."
The subsequent two reports—the audit report of September 12, 2023, and the independent review of February 2025—both confirmed significant deficiencies in the operator's compliance framework. Austrac's core accusations focused on two points: one is that Bet365 failed to maintain a sufficient AML/CTF compliance system, constituting a violation of Article 81 of the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act; the other is the complete absence of ongoing customer due diligence on some customers. The latter is seen as the most basic line of defense in the anti-money laundering compliance system—without knowing who the customers are and where the money comes from, all subsequent monitoring is futile.
Rectification plan: Redo risk assessment, refurbish customer models
According to the agreement reached between the parties, Bet365 has formally acknowledged the aforementioned issues and voluntarily agreed to the rectification arrangements under Article 197. Key items on the rectification list include: recompiling a comprehensive risk assessment covering money laundering, terrorist financing, and proliferation financing; upgrading the customer risk assessment model; and strengthening the documentation and testing mechanisms of control documents.
The enforceable undertaking will remain effective until Austrac formally cancels it or Bet365 voluntarily applies for withdrawal. From the timeline, the regulatory body has given a clear two-phase rhythm—submit an interim progress report by December 31, 2026, and by July 30, 2027, an independent auditor will issue a final report confirming that all rectification measures have been implemented. This set of time nodes is essentially giving the operator a "prove the direction is right first, then prove everything is done" buffer period.
Entain has been fined, Bet365 chose another path
Looking a bit further, Austrac's anti-money laundering enforcement list includes not only Bet365. In December 2024, Austrac initiated civil penalty proceedings against Entain, accusing it of similar anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing compliance failures. At that time, Entain acknowledged in a statement that its past compliance system indeed had "certain defects," but raised objections to some of the accusations and interpretations in the Austrac case.
In contrast, Bet365 this time chose the path of enforceable undertakings under Article 197—a coordinated route of "admitting mistakes + correcting errors + accepting ongoing supervision," rather than a hard confrontation with civil penalties. Both paths require operators to fill compliance gaps, but they differ significantly in terms of speed, cost, and public exposure. PASA's official website believes that Austrac's consecutive actions against two leading international operators are a clear signal: the era of "having rules but not really checking" in Australia's AML/CTF regulation is over, and the final audit report in July 2027 will be a hard indicator to test the sincerity of Bet365's rectification.
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This article is from "PASA-Global iGaming Leaders," a gambling industry news channel: https://t.me/pasa_news
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