Slot 01 of 05 · New South Wales and Victoria
Gaming machine ads on a screen in NSW and Victoria
In New South Wales, a person “(whether or not a hotelier or club)” must not publish gaming machine advertising, and the Act’s meaning of “publish” names “electronics” and “television”. The Regulation excludes advertising inside a hotel or club that cannot be seen or heard from outside; Victoria bars it outside a venue’s gaming machine area or a casino’s boundaries.
General information about gaming law in New South Wales and Victoria, not legal advice. The Acts and Regulations, linked at the foot of this page, are the official text.
New South Wales
The line: what can be seen or heard from outside the hotel or club.
Victoria
The line: the gaming machine area (dashed) of an approved venue.
New South Wales: section 43 and the word “publish”
New South Wales
Section 43(1) of the Gaming Machines Act 2001 sets the rule:
“A person (whether or not a hotelier or club) must not publish or cause to be published any gaming machine advertising.”
Gaming Machines Act 2001 (NSW), s 43(1). Maximum penalty: 100 penalty units.
Its definition covers any form of advertising that “gives publicity to, or otherwise promotes or is intended to promote” playing approved gaming machines in a hotel or club, or supplying, selling or making them, except advertising the regulations exclude.
For a screen, the meaning of publish matters. It “includes disseminate in any way”, by spoken, visual, written or other means, and its examples include “cinema, video, radio, electronics, the Internet or television”.
The Regulation’s exclusions, all of them
Clause 41 of the Gaming Machines Regulation 2019 lists what falls outside section 43, and in some subclauses section 44 as well. For a screen inside a venue, subclause (6) matters most.
| Subclause | What it excludes or allows |
|---|---|
| (1) | Advertising that appears in a gaming machine industry trade journal not ordinarily available to the general public; in promotional material a registered club gives a member under subclause (4); at, or in a publication for, a gaming machine industry trade convention; in a State advertising campaign about gambling harm; as an accidental or incidental accompaniment to publishing other matter, where the publisher gets no extra benefit for it; or in a publication advertising a public exhibition at a State-owned museum or similar public institution. |
| (2) | Supply, sale or manufacture advertising aimed at the industry and not on public display or accessible to the public. |
| (3) | For a dealer licence holder: its name, logo or brand; annual reports; its or its industry association’s website; call-waiting messages; directory listings; and analysts’ reports, newspaper reports or academic articles about it. |
| (4) and (5) | Seven conditions for a club’s promotional material to members, starting with express consent, and how long consent lasts. |
| (6) | Advertising, including a gambling-related sign, that “appears or is stated inside a hotel or on the premises of a registered club” and “cannot be seen or heard from outside the hotel or club”. |
| (7) | A registered club’s name as at 2 April 2002. |
| (8) | A dealer’s or licensed auctioneer’s name is not, in itself, advertising. |
| (9) | An approved gaming machine is not, in itself, advertising or a gambling-related sign. |
Signs seen from outside: section 44
New South Wales
Section 44(1) is addressed to “A hotelier or club”. It bars displaying a gambling-related sign outside or near the venue, or inside “so that it can be seen from outside”, with a maximum of 100 penalty units.
A gambling-related sign is any sign, “whether consisting of words, symbols, pictures or any other thing”, that draws attention, or “can reasonably be taken to draw attention”, to approved gaming machines being available in a hotel or club; that “uses a term or expression frequently associated with gambling”; or that “relates to a gambling franchise or gambling business”. Signs about a totalizator or a public lottery under their own Acts, and signs the regulations exclude, are not included.
Victoria: two sections, two definitions
Victoria
Victoria’s Gambling Regulation Act 2003 (authorised version 110, in force from 22 October 2025) splits the rule by who publishes. Under section 3.5.34AA, venue operators, and people acting for them, must not publish gaming machine advertising outside the gaming machine area of an approved venue; casino operators, and people acting for them, not outside the casino’s boundaries. Each carries 120 penalty units.
Section 3.5.34 covers everyone else, with the same lines (including a venue whose approval is suspended) and the same 120 penalty units, and also bars contracts to publish there.
The definitions differ. For operators, it is advertising containing anything “associated with gaming machines”, as a reasonable Victorian resident with ordinary knowledge would see it. Under section 3.5.34, it is advertising that promotes, or is intended to promote, playing gaming machines. Both leave out problem gambling information and technical information about a machine.
Both let a loyalty scheme provider send advertising to participants, subject to section 3.5.40, and let it go to a person who asked for it (in writing, for operators). Section 3.5.34AA also does not stop the publication of a notice or information that the Act or the Commission requires an operator to publish, a notice, information or sign permitted under section 3.5.35, a responsible gambling sign, or advertising containing a prescribed term, expression, symbol or other thing. For a casino operator, regulation 33 of the Gambling Regulations 2026 prescribes the term “CROWN” and the symbol in Schedule 2, or one similar to it.
Gaming machine related signs
Section 3.5.35 bars a gaming machine related sign (20 penalty units): one drawing attention to gaming machines being available, or using a term frequently associated with them, unless the regulations exclude it. The Gambling Regulations 2026, in operation from 12 June 2026, exclude seven kinds of sign:
- signs in a gaming machine area, or a casino, displayed to be viewed primarily from inside it (regulation 25);
- a sign on an approved venue showing “pokies” once, white on a single colour, up to 2 square metres, undecorated, and, among other conditions, one per venue, or two with more than one street frontage (regulation 26);
- directional signs, within limits on wording, size and placement (regulation 27);
- one sign for an approved venue holding a club licence that is not on a freeway or arterial road, within similar limits (regulation 28);
- signs at a gaming industry trade event or convention (regulation 29);
- the casino’s prescribed symbol, the word “CROWN”, or both (regulation 30);
- signs that consist only of information about problem gambling or its services (regulation 31).
For the “pokies” sign, lighting counts as decorative unless it is purely functional, matches the venue’s other signage, draws no extra attention, and has no flashing, colourful or different coloured lights. Separately, section 3.5.35A requires a venue operator that is not a casino operator to put a responsible gambling sign outside each entrance to a gaming machine area (60 penalty units).
Alcohol ads
This guide does not cover alcohol advertising; the ABAC Scheme says its Code covers where alcohol marketing is placed and what it contains.
Other ads on the loop have their own rules: election ads on a screen and tobacco and vaping ads on a screen. All five guides are on the digital signs home page.