They look just like real gambling sites.
But new fake online casinos are keeping people’s supposed winnings, blocking withdrawals and demanding further payments.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, tasked with protecting Australians from scams, says the bogus betting sites are targeting Indigenous people.
ACCC Deputy Chair Catriona Lowe says the Commission is investigating the possibility that First Nations communities are being geo-targeted by the scam, as 45 percent of those who suffered losses in 2025 identified as Indigenous.
"We need to find out if that is true and, if it is true, how it’s being done,” she said.
Operated by the ACCC, Scamwatch says there were 806 reports of scam gambling, or 'scambling', in 2025.
That was up from 677 in the year before.
Reported losses more than tripled from about $449,000 in 2024 to $1.6 million in 2025, but the National Anti-Scam Centre says the real cost and number is likely much higher.
"We believe scambling is significantly underreported because people may think they have lost money through gambling, rather than through a scam,” Ms Lowe said.
Another part of the scam is a referral system where people are promised lucrative referral benefits if they get their friends involved.
"Of course it is not an online casino: it is a sophisticated scam that is designed to take money.”
Ms Lowe says anyone who believes they have lost money to scambling should contact their bank as soon as possible to protect themselves from further losses.
She is also asking people who have lost money to the fake online casinos to make a report to scamwatch, to help uncover scammers and protect others in the community.
The National Anti-Scam Centre run by the ACCC is taking scambling seriously and is launching a six-month investigation called a 'fusion cell'.
Ms Lowe says the ACCC’s investigation will bring together police, government agencies, banks, telecommunications providers and frontline community services to seek to understand how scambling is being perpetrated and protect people from the scam.
Scams can be reported online at the scamwatch website https://www.scamwatch.gov.au/ and on the dedicated phone line for First Nations communities 1300 303 143
