Australia’s unified self-exclusion program has reported the latest numbers for Q3 2024/2025, with the program, which originally launched on August 21, 2023, now reporting that it has reached 40,121 total registrations.
BetStop continues to reach out to young Australians
The number of total registrations is not the number of people currently enrolled in the program, as a considerable number of players have ended their self-exclusion earlier or have completed their self-exclusion period in the first place.
According to BetStop’s official record-keeping, as of March 31, 2025, there were 27,763 people still enrolled and benefiting from the protection offered by the program.
BetStop currently offers exclusion periods that range from three months to a lifetime, and players are allowed to withdraw within seven days once they have sent a valid application.
However, any player who wishes to withdraw would first need to have concluded at least a three-month self-exclusion period. BetStop has provided insight in terms of total registrations by jurisdiction, covering all eight territories and states in Australia.
New South Wales led the way in total registrations, with 12,531 people rolling themselves into BetStop. Another 10,800 registered in Victoria, the second-largest number in the program. Then, there was Queensland, which came in third with 8,125 total registrations.
Although BetStop did not offer a breakdown of how many people were still enrolled in the program as of March 31, 2025, the program shared a demographic breakdown of the enrollees. 46% of all people to have registered with the program were under the age of 30.
Another 32% were aged between 31 and 40, meaning that nearly 80% of all registrations came from people under the age of 40, indicating the program’s prevalence among the most active part of society.
BetStop also offered a breakdown of the options that individual registrants have chosen and offered them in aggregate. The biggest groups were those excluding themselves from 3 months to 2 years (39%), with the lifetime option equally popular (39%).
Research into Australia’s problem gambling is ongoing
In between, 17% of registrants preferred the 3-month exclusion period, and only 1% excluded outright for more than 5 years. Another 4% opted for the 2-5-year exclusion period.
BetStop has so far been hailed as a success, although Australia’s population of problem gamblers may be much larger than the 40,000 people cited.
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare published a comprehensive overview of Gambling in Australia on September 7, 2023, and argued, citing more relevant research, that 45% of Australians aged 18 and over who gambled could be classified as being at risk.
