Real-money gambling

What you're actually buying

A stake, not a thing: the money you put on a spin, a hand, a race or a ticket, in return for a chance at a cash prize. The odds, or the operator's cut, are set so that across all its players the operator keeps more than it pays out. That gap is the business.

How it works

Online casino and pokies apps, real-money poker and blackjack, sports and race betting apps and lottery apps all take a stake and pay out on chance. Unlike a game with slot-machine mechanics, the money can come back out as cash; unlike skin-betting sites, the gambling is the product itself rather than something bolted onto a game.

'Sweepstakes casinos', a mostly American model, sell packs of play coins and add 'free' sweepstakes coins that can be redeemed for cash or prizes, which lets them argue they are not gambling. Regulators in New York, California and other US states have disagreed.

When it's fine

Never for children. Real-money gambling is for adults only: you must be 18 in Australia and in Great Britain. For adults, only with an operator licensed where you live, with a spending limit set before you start, and self-exclusion such as Australia's BetStop if it stops being fun.

Where it came from

Australia passed the Interactive Gambling Act in 2001, making it an offence to offer online casino-style games to people in Australia while licensed online wagering on sports and racing stayed legal. Great Britain's Gambling Act 2005, as amended in 2014, requires anyone offering online gambling to British consumers to hold a Gambling Commission licence, wherever they are based. The app stores added their own rules: Apple takes real-money gaming apps only if they are licensed and geo-restricted, and Google Play admits gambling apps only through an application process in select countries. Sweepstakes casinos grew in the United States by paying out through redeemable coins instead of direct stakes, until states including New York and California moved against them in 2025.

Rules and regulation

Australia: the Interactive Gambling Act 2001 makes it illegal to offer people in Australia online casino games (online pokies, poker, blackjack, roulette), online scratchies, in-play online sports betting, or wagering and lottery services without an Australian licence. Licensed sports and race betting is legal for adults; the ACMA, which enforces the Act, keeps a register of licensed wagering providers and has internet providers block illegal gambling websites. Since 11 June 2024, online wagering can't be paid for with credit cards or digital currency such as crypto. BetStop, the National Self-Exclusion Register, lets anyone block themselves from every licensed Australian online and phone gambling provider.

Great Britain: anyone offering online gambling to people in Great Britain needs a Gambling Commission licence, wherever they are based. Operators must verify a customer's age before they can deposit or gamble, and since 2025 online slots have been capped at £5 a spin, or £2 for 18 to 24-year-olds.

App stores: Apple's App Store Review Guidelines (5.3.4) require apps offering real-money gaming or lotteries to hold the necessary licences where they are used, be geo-restricted to those places and be free to download, and (5.3.3) don't allow in-app purchase of credit for real-money gaming. Google Play allows gambling apps only in select countries after an application process: they must be licensed, keep out under-age users and unlicensed areas, be free to download, not use Google Play billing, be rated Adults Only or the equivalent, and show responsible-gambling information.

Sweepstakes casinos: in June 2025 New York's Attorney General ordered 26 sweepstakes casinos to stop, saying betting cash-redeemable coins is gambling under state law, and California banned dual-currency sweepstakes casinos from 1 January 2026.

Historical prices and revenues are in US dollars at the time unless marked A$.