Tasmania gambling laws: the $5 bet limit, no note acceptors in pubs and the deferred player card

Tasmania gambling laws in brief

Tasmania gambling laws sit in one Act, the Gaming Control Act 1993, which covers pokies, keno, casinos, the tote, sports betting, interactive gambling and minor gaming. The detail that players feel comes from the Tasmanian Gaming Machine Standards, which the Tasmanian Liquor and Gaming Commission updates regularly; the current version is dated 6 July 2026.

Who regulates gambling in Tasmania

Two regulators share the job, both supported by the Liquor and Gaming Branch of the Department of Treasury and Finance:

• the Tasmanian Liquor and Gaming Commission, set up by the Gaming Control Act, which grants licences and sets the gaming standards
• the Commissioner for Licensing, who also regulates liquor licensing under the Liquor Licensing Act 1990

The Act states its objects plainly: gambling should be fair, honest and free from criminal influence; the law should take a public health and consumer protection approach, especially for people vulnerable to harm; and the returns from gambling should be shared appropriately. When deciding whether a venue can have gaming machines, the Commission must consider community interest matters set out in the Gaming Control Regulations 2022.

The pokies rules, and what they mean at the machine

Tasmania's machine standards are tighter than most states' on bet size and cash. Together, the $5 maximum bet and 3-second minimum game put a ceiling on how fast money can go through one machine: at most $6,000 bet in an hour, in our calculation (3,600 seconds divided by 3, times $5). With an 87% minimum return, the long-run cost of that maximum pace is up to $780 an hour, in our calculation. Most play is slower and smaller, but the ceiling shows what the rules are designed to cap.

Pubs and clubs cannot have note acceptors at all, so you can't feed a $50 note into a hotel machine. Machines in the two casinos can take notes, but only up to a $500 cash input limit. The standards also ban games that let you bet extra credits during play to unlock more features, and require machines to show the return to player to two decimal places. Our pokies calculator lets you try the same maths with your own bet size.

The player card that was deferred

Tasmania went further than most states in planning card-based play, then paused. The timeline, from Treasury's own page:

Treasury has published the Commission's design decisions up to October 2024 to show what the system would have looked like, but there is no mandatory card in Tasmanian venues now. If you want limits, the venue options and national tools in our gambling limits guide still apply.

Casinos in Tasmania

Tasmania has two general casino licences:

• Wrest Point Casino Hotel, Hobart, licensed to Australian National Hotels Pty Ltd
• Country Club Casino, Launceston, licensed to Tasmanian Country Club Casino Pty Ltd

A general licence covers table games, fully and semi-automated table games, keno and gaming machines. Tasmania also has a high-roller casino licence category, with much larger minimum bets, no gaming machines or keno and play limited to non-Tasmanian residents, but none has been issued.

How Tasmania taxes gambling

Treasury publishes every rate, and the gap between the casinos and pubs is wide:

The Community Support Levy is charged on gross gaming machine profits and paid into the Community Support Fund. The point of consumption tax has applied since 1 January 2020 to every Australian-licensed betting operator with Tasmanian customers; free bets are excluded from the calculation. Tasmania has no state lottery and receives tax collected in Victoria and Queensland on tickets sold in Tasmania. For how winnings are treated for you, see our gambling tax in Australia guide.

Online gambling and Tasmania

A Tasmanian Gaming Licence lets a holder offer gambling by telecommunications, including the internet, for sports betting, betting exchanges, race wagering, the tote and major lotteries. It cannot authorise online pokies or casino games for Australians, because the federal Interactive Gambling Act 2001 prohibits them. Our page on whether online pokies are legal in Australia explains that law, and gambling laws in Australia compares every state.

Help in Tasmania

The Gambling Helpline Tasmania gives advice, phone counselling and referrals 24/7 on 1800 858 858, and Anglicare Tasmania runs in-person Gambler's Help counselling on 1800 243 232. The Tasmanian Gambling Exclusion Scheme allows people experiencing gambling problems to be excluded from gambling; our self-exclusion guide covers it alongside BetStop.

Related reading

Guide Victoria Victoria passed a carded play law in 2025, already makes Crown players use a card with loss limits, and caps every venue at 105 machines. Here is what the rules are, who enforces them and what is still being rolled out. Read more Guide WA WA is the only state with no poker machines in pubs and clubs. Electronic gaming machines exist in one place, the Perth casino, and since December 2025 every player there needs a card with time and loss limits. Read more Guide ACT The ACT charges bookmakers 25%, the highest betting tax we found in Australia, limits ATM cash in pokies venues to $250 a day, and has legislated a smaller machine cap. Here is how gambling in Canberra is regulated. Read more Guide SA SA limits every venue to 40 pokies, bans $100 notes in machines and makes larger venues use facial recognition to spot barred gamblers. Here is how gambling in SA is regulated and what changed at the casino in 2026. Read more Guide NT Many of Australia's online bookmakers are licensed in the Northern Territory, not where their customers live. Here is what an NT bookmaker licence involves, who regulates it, and the Territory's pokies and casino rules. Read more Guide Gambling tax In Australia, a recreational punter's winnings are not taxed. The tax is collected from the other side of the counter: bookmakers, venues and casinos pay state taxes on what players lose. Here is how both sides work. Read more