Keno Vic Hit with $75,000 Penalty Over Self-Exclusion Gaps

The Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission (VGCCC) has imposed a $75,000 fine on Keno Vic Pty Ltd (trading as Keno Vic) after the operator’s systems failed to prevent a self-excluded individual from gambling. The penalty, announced by VGCCC CEO Suzy Neilan, underscores the regulator’s insistence that licensees must have robust safeguards to uphold self-exclusion arrangements.

In October 2024, a customer who had voluntarily excluded from Keno Vic’s products in April of the same year managed to open a second online account. Although the operator’s automatic identity verification flagged the applicant, it did not detect the prior exclusion, and a restricted play period was imposed without blocking the account. The individual was able to deposit funds and place bets before a manual verification could be completed.

The breach came to light only when the customer contacted Keno Vic to finalise the manual verification process—providing their real name to claim winnings—at which point the system recognised the duplicate and the self-exclusion status. Victorian regulations explicitly prohibit any person from holding more than one account with a single gambling provider.

Neilan said that while the customer attempted to bypass verification, “the responsibility remains with the major licensee, Keno Vic, to have systems in place that can identify or flag self-excluded individuals.” She emphasised that self-exclusion is a critical harm-minimisation tool, and the fine reflects “the objective seriousness of the breaches.”

The commission noted that Keno Vic’s clean compliance history, full cooperation with the investigation, and subsequent remedial efforts were treated as mitigating factors, resulting in a penalty lower than the maximum possible. The case reinforces the VGCCC’s risk-based approach to enforcement, aiming to deter similar failures across the industry.