Victoria gambling laws: carded play, the $100 load-up limit and Crown's player cards

Victoria gambling laws in one table

Victoria regulates gambling through one commission and two main Acts, and it has moved further than most states towards card-based play. The core rules:

Who regulates gambling in Victoria

The VGCCC regulates every form of legal gambling in the state: hotel and club pokies, keno, lotteries, wagering and the Melbourne Casino. It keeps the entitlements register that shows which venue holds which machines, approves new machine types, and approves the rules of every table game at the casino. Any change to a casino game, down to removing a single hand type from a blackjack variant, needs its approval first.

Poker machine rules in Victoria

Victoria limits machines by number, by place and by owner. There are 27,310 entitlements available to venue operators, and each entitlement allows one machine. On top of the statewide total:

• no premises can exceed 105 entitlements
• a club venue operator cannot hold more than 1,260 club entitlements
• no person or organisation can have an interest in more than 35% of hotel entitlements
• at least 20% must operate outside metropolitan Melbourne, and 25 capped regions plus municipal limits restrict where the rest can go

In June 2026, 26,144 machines were operating on average across 479 venues, about 55 per venue, in our calculation from VGCCC monthly data. Hotel and club pokies took $3,318.40 million from Victorians in 2025-26, or about $126,900 per operating machine, in our calculation.

The carded play and pre-commitment law

The Gambling Legislation Amendment (Pre-commitment and Carded Play) Act 2025 is the biggest change to Victorian pokies in years. Parliament passed it on 27 May 2025, and it received Royal Assent on 3 June 2025. It amends both the Gambling Regulation Act and the Casino Control Act. What it does:

The government also announced in November 2024 that the most you can load onto a machine at once would drop from $1,000 to $100 from December 2025.

Implementation has moved more slowly than the law. The VGCCC said in May 2025 that the carded play trial, scheduled for May to June 2025, was postponed and that timeframes would be updated after the Bill passed. Check the VGCCC's site for where the rollout stands before relying on any date. Our gambling limits guide explains how pre-commitment limits work in practice.

Closing hours

Gaming areas in all Victorian hotels and clubs must close from 4am to 10am. The Victorian Government said these standard hours took effect on 30 August 2024, ending a patchwork of venue-by-venue hours. A separate quirk: on Anzac Day, most liquor licences do not allow alcohol, and therefore poker machines, before 12 noon unless an exemption applies.

Crown Melbourne

The Melbourne Casino is the only casino licensed under the Casino Control Act 1991, operated by Crown Melbourne Limited in the Crown complex at Southbank. Its rules already go beyond what hotels and clubs face:

• the casino must not allow gambling on gaming machines or electronic table games unless they are accessed with a player card
• Australian residents playing gaming machines must set a net loss limit and a time limit
• the VGCCC has inspectors on site 24 hours a day, and reviews the operator's suitability every five years under the Act

Crown's poker machines and table games took $1,014.65 million from players in 2025-26, according to the VGCCC.

Betting tax in Victoria

Victoria's wagering and betting tax is a point of consumption tax: it is charged on net wagering revenue from customers located in Victoria, no matter where the bookmaker holds its licence. The State Revenue Office history shows how it has climbed:

Punters do not pay this tax. For how your own wins are treated, see our gambling tax in Australia guide. Spring carnival bets fall under the same rules; our Melbourne Cup betting guide covers the bet types.

What Victorians lose

The VGCCC publishes a full breakdown each year. In 2025-26, Victorians lost $7,637.61 million on legal gambling and generated $2,576.78 million in state gambling taxes.

None of these figures include offshore online casinos, which operate illegally. The Interactive Gambling Act 2001 means no Victorian licence can cover online pokies; our guide on whether online pokies are legal in Australia sets out the national rules. For how the state compares with the rest of the country, see gambling laws in Australia.

Getting help in Victoria

Gambling Help is free and confidential on 1800 858 858, 24 hours a day. Self-exclusion from venues and the national BetStop register for online betting are explained in our self-exclusion guide.

Related reading

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