August 5, 2026 — 5:00amSocial media influencers are posting provocative videos to lure customers into gambling venues and illegal online betting apps, sparking fears the clips are exploiting problem gamblers and enticing teens to start betting.In one clip, a gambling influencer and OnlyFans performer tells customers who have torched money at physical poker machines to attempt to win back their losses by placing bets at a foreign casino banned from operating in Australia.Clips from some of the Australian influencers posting from gambling room floors.InstagramThe flood of videos has triggered an investigation from a patchwork of regulators, but only one influencer has been disciplined, suggesting Australia’s gambling authorities are being outmatched by the pace of social media posts.The warnings from the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), gambling regulators in Victoria and NSW, as well as academics and club peak bodies are in response to a surge of videos posted mostly across Instagram and TikTok in recent months.The videos take different forms: many creators, such as an influencer who goes by Dicey Ninja, film themselves entering a specific pub, RSL club or gaming venues in suburbs such as Coogee and Dee Why in Sydney, Caulfield in Melbourne, and Burleigh Heads in Queensland.Others such as those by Luca Kante begin with influencers holding a stack of $50 or $100 bills sitting at a machine speaking to camera explaining their tactics for the specific game they’re about to try – despite poker machines not being a game of skill and punters statistically likely to lose.While many of the influencers are mullet-toting beer-drinking men, the genre also includes young women dressed in revealing clothing while giving tutorials about how to play various poker machines.Some even post ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response) videos where audio simulates the effect of the influencer’s voice or dings from the pokies being whispered into a viewer’s ear to trigger a tingling sensation, an added stimulation on top of the vibrant animations of the game.The overwhelming majority of videos seen by this masthead appear to show the influencers winning money, though some do post videos showing their losses. Brielle Riding, an OnlyFans model, has posted about losing money at a physical poker machine, but ended her video by boasting how easily she won her money back by logging onto an online casino, WinSpirit. She then provides a personalised link in her profile for her audience to click, which appears to earn her a commission.WinSpirit, which is licensed in Curacao and is not legally permitted to offer gambling to people in Australia, has a website advertising how influencers earn commissions by advertising its products. The company and Riding did not respond to questions about whether she was being paid to refer people to the site.Kante did not respond to questions. In an in interview with the ABC last month, he said he initially included gambling harm disclosures in his posts, but later stopped. “One day, I was like ‘the government are getting millions of dollars off the pokies right, they love it’… [so] I’m thinking who am I? Do I work for the government? At the end of the day you guys are adults,” he said.This masthead does not suggest that the other influencers named in this article, who did not respond to requests for comment, are being paid. Some may instead earn money for spruiking other products, receive freebies for their personal gambling, or make money from the views their posts generate directly.Federal Labor’s planned gambling advertising crackdown would ban betting companies sponsoring “notable people” for promotions, but the ACMA told a parliamentary inquiry on Tuesday that it had not yet formed a “precise definition” of the term.None of the videos reviewed by this masthead contained disclosures they were ads. Associations for clubs, pubs, casino operators Crown and Star as well as Australia’s largest pokie manufacturer, Aristocrat, insisted they never pay influencers for such content.Aristocrat said: “Aristocrat does not work with, engage with, or pay social media influencers in Australia, nor do we authorise or endorse their content.”One influencer who responded to questions from this masthead, Sarah Lloyd, claimed she only filmed content in front of poker machines and club signage because the content was “a cool backdrop” of interest to many social media users who she could gain as followers for her other channels. Unlike ads for betting or gambling products which are strictly regulated and limited by various authorities across the country, the videos posted by influencers do not carry warnings about the risks of gambling or resources for viewers struggling with gambling addiction. In many cases, the posts do not meet the legal classification of an advertisement that mandates it be accompanied by specific messaging about the harms and risks.The federal agency for policing illegal online gambling, ACMA, said it is “actively looking at a number” of social media influencers for potential breaches of Australia’s online gambling laws, and that it had previously asked platforms to remove posts.“Individual influencers who promote or publicise illegal online gambling services may face civil penalties of up to $59,400 per contravention. Those who facilitate access, such as by providing hyperlinks, risk even higher penalties, which can reach up to $2.475 million,” ACMA said in a statement. Last month, ACMA announced it issued a formal warning to a mixed martial arts fighter for promoting illegal offshore gambling services.The regulator has just 12 full-time staff working on online gambling compliance, ACMA told Tuesday’s inquiry, and has not been provided with more funding to fulfil its expanded responsibilities under Labor’s reforms.State and territory regulatory bodies are charged with policing of physical poker machines and gaming venues.Suzy Neilan, chief executive of the Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission (VGCCC), said “social media content featuring poker machines, including venue visits, gameplay or gambling wins may constitute prohibited gambling advertising in Victoria”.She said the regulator was also concerned social media posts spruiking gambling may make people think gambling was harmless, a fun lifestyle, and “a source of easy money”, prompting the commission to establish a dedicated taskforce to address the risk.“We are concerned about the potential consequences, especially for very young people and those at risk of gambling harm, and are exploring our options and powers to regulate these activities,” she said.In NSW – where state audit office statistics from 2025 show the average machine earns in excess of $90,000 net profit per year – the state’s Liquor and Gaming Office deputy secretary Tarek Barakat said influencers “may increase the risk of gambling harm by blurring the line between entertainment and marketing, and by exposing at‑risk groups to persuasive promotional content”.“The things we are targeting include paid and unpaid promotional partnerships with wagering operators and gaming machine operators, influencer content that normalises betting behaviour or glamorises gaming products, and in particular, the use of platforms, including podcasts, with large youth or vulnerable audiences,” Barakat said in March.Rules around filming inside gaming rooms are not uniform across the country. For example, filming is prohibited in Victoria, but not in Queensland, yet social media algorithms traverse state lines.Angela Rintoul, an associate professor researching gambling and suicide at The University of Melbourne, said there were gaps in gambling advertising regulations that allowed the videos to flourish.Whether or not venues were paying influencers mattered little when considering the potential for harm, she said.“Gambling companies and venues are benefitting, because influencers are ultimately promoting these products, even if it is done indirectly and [primarily] to drive audience for influencers,” Rintoul said.“It’s striking especially how many of the female influencers’ videos have a training element, it does seem to be speaking to a younger demographic about how to use different machines, which buttons to press,” she said.Rintoul remarked how some female influencers tend to wear “low cut tops”, and together with filming poker machines in action, amounted to a “layering of elements that we know link to addiction”.“It’s grooming in the way it speaks, it’s making suggestions people put on high bets,” she said. “It appears to be a form of marketing that has been under the radar and overlooked by regulators and platforms.”The Business Briefing newsletter delivers major stories, exclusive coverage and expert opinion. 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