Northern Territory Bookmaker Licence Cost 2026: AUD 29,800 Fees, a Doubled Tax Cap, an Uncapped Levy

The numbers most guides still print

Search for the cost of an Australian online bookmaker licence and you will find AUD 28,200 for the fee and AUD 1.41 million as the ceiling on Territory tax. Both are correct for the 2024-25 financial year. Neither is what the Act and Regulations say today.

Two things changed. The fees in the Racing and Wagering Regulations 2024 are written as revenue units, not dollars, and a unit rose from AUD 1.41 to AUD 1.45 on 1 July 2025 and to AUD 1.49 on 1 July 2026. Separately, section 14 of the Revenue Legislation Amendment Act 2025 changed the tax cap in section 145(4) of the Racing and Wagering Act from 1,000,000 revenue units to 2,000,000, from 1 July 2025.

I read the reprint of the Act and Regulations “as in force at 22 June 2026” on the Northern Territory legislation site, the amending Acts, the Territory Revenue Office’s unit table and the Commission’s operator list on 21 October 2026. Where something could not be confirmed, the text says so.

Fees: 20,000 units, three times

For a sports bookmaker licence or a betting exchange licence, regulations 9, 10 and 13 each set 20,000 revenue units: one for the application, one for renewal, one as the annual fee. A key person licence costs 150 units to apply and to renew, with no annual fee. The Act says the application fee covers the first year (s 142(2), note), so the annual fee first falls due in year two, within 28 days after the anniversary of issue.

Financial year	Revenue unit	20,000 units	Key person (150 units)	Tax cap
2024-25	AUD 1.41	AUD 28,200	AUD 211	1,000,000 units = AUD 1,410,000
2025-26	AUD 1.45	AUD 29,000	AUD 217	2,000,000 units = AUD 2,900,000
2026-27	AUD 1.49	AUD 29,800	AUD 223	2,000,000 units = AUD 2,980,000

The Territory Revenue Office rounds a fee down to the nearest dollar, and I did the same. The unit value rises each year by Darwin CPI or 3%, whichever is higher, so the 2027-28 figure will be higher again. A licence runs for 20 years (reg 16), unless the Commission sets a shorter term (s 141), so the fee is not a one-off.

Fees are the small part. Section 137 lets the Director charge the applicant the actual cost of investigating the application, with payments requested before the work starts. The Commission may also ask for security of up to AUD 250,000 (s 136, reg 12). I found no published amount for the investigation cost.

Tax: 5%, with a ceiling that moved

Section 145(3) taxes a sports bookmaker at 5% of the wagers it took in a month minus what it paid out on them. A betting exchange pays 5% of its commission. Tax is due by the 14th of each month (s 144). Section 145(4) caps the tax for a financial year at the value of 2,000,000 revenue units.

At AUD 1.49 the cap is AUD 2,980,000, which 5% reaches at AUD 59.6 million of net wagering revenue. Under the old cap the break-even was AUD 28.2 million. So an operator with AUD 100 million of net wagering revenue pays AUD 2,980,000 now, against AUD 1,410,000 under the 2024-25 rules: AUD 1,570,000 more, or 111%.

The levy is separate and has no cap. Regulation 14 sets it at 0.05% of the same base each month, with free and bonus wagers excluded from the levy formula. Section 145(3) has no equivalent exclusion, and I could not tell from the text whether bonus wagers count in the tax base. The only AUD 250,000 in regulation 14 is the largest deduction the Director may allow for donations or sponsorship given to a Territory community organisation.

Annual Territory cost at 2026-27 values, using the figures above and the year-two fee (before security and investigation costs):

Net wagering revenue	Tax (5%, capped)	Levy (0.05%)	Annual fee	Total	Share of revenue
AUD 1m	50,000	500	29,800	80,300	8.03%
AUD 5m	250,000	2,500	29,800	282,300	5.65%
AUD 10m	500,000	5,000	29,800	534,800	5.35%
AUD 25m	1,250,000	12,500	29,800	1,292,300	5.17%
AUD 50m	2,500,000	25,000	29,800	2,554,800	5.11%
AUD 59.6m	2,980,000	29,800	29,800	3,039,600	5.10%
AUD 100m	2,980,000	50,000	29,800	3,059,800	3.06%
AUD 300m	2,980,000	150,000	29,800	3,159,800	1.05%
AUD 1,000m	2,980,000	500,000	29,800	3,509,800	0.35%

Below AUD 59.6 million the effective Territory rate sits just above 5% because the fee is a fixed cost. Above it, the cap makes the Territory’s own take fall as a share of revenue. That is the structural reason large bookmakers hold NT licences, but it has become less generous since July 2025.

Who can apply

Section 130 sets the eligibility criteria: a sound and stable financial background, a satisfactory ownership structure, enough financial resources to keep the business viable, experienced management, and suitable officers. Section 140 adds a public-interest test that explicitly considers risk to the reputation of the Commission or the Territory, and a refusal must be preceded by a notice giving at least 10 business days to show cause. The Commission may rely on information from other racing, wagering and gambling regulators (s 139).

One condition is physical: the licensee must have an approved nominee who is an individual resident in the Territory, reachable in business hours and able to give inspectors access to the premises (s 132). A holder of a totalisator licence is taken to be eligible (s 130(3)). I found no statutory processing time.

What changed on 22 June 2026

The Racing and Wagering Amendment Act 2026 (Act No. 12 of 2026) was introduced on 18 March 2026 and commenced on 22 June 2026 by Gazette notice G12 of 18 June 2026, according to the Act’s endnotes. The Commission’s own pages now call it the NT Wagering Commission, with the amended wording of its functions.

For a licensee the changes that matter are these:

• A person appointed to the Commission must close every account held with a licensee within 5 business days and may not hold one during the term (s 19A).
• Commission members face a 1-year bar on working for a licensee after they leave, and the Director and inspectors a 6-month bar. A licensee may not engage them in that period (s 40).
• A renewed licence carries the same conditions as the one it replaces, and the Commission can vary or add conditions at any time in line with the regulations (s 154 as amended).

The register on 21 October 2026

The Commission’s list, dated 19 October 2026, has 47 rows. One, Ubet NT, is licensed under the Totalisator Licensing and Regulation Act 2000. The other 46 are brand rows under the Racing and Wagering Act: 38 trading and 8 marked “not currently trading”. They sit under 21 company names, 15 of which have at least one trading brand. Matchday Entertainment Pty Ltd is listed with 10 brands, MintSports with 5, and Booki.com.au with 4.

Our Australia profile previously said 52 bookmakers, which does not match the Commission’s list. The list counts brands under company names, so the number of separate licences may be lower than 46, and the page does not say.

The eight dormant rows matter for budgeting. Because s 142(4) makes the annual fee payable whether or not the licensee operates, a licence you cannot yet use still costs AUD 29,800 a year from the second year.

What this page does not cover

State point-of-consumption taxes on bets from customers in other states and territories, which are paid in addition to Territory tax, were not re-verified for this page. Nor was the Commonwealth Interactive Gambling Act 2001, which sits outside the Racing and Wagering Act. The Australia profile summarises both, and the 12-jurisdiction cost comparison shows where the Territory sits against other regimes. For a UK comparison on the same fee-plus-levy basis, see UK licence fees from 1 October 2026.

My view: if your plan is to run AUD 20 to 60 million of net wagering revenue, the Territory is a 5% regime plus about AUD 30,000, and you should budget the full 5%. If you expect to pass AUD 60 million, the cap matters, but it is now AUD 2.98 million, not 1.41. Re-run the table with your own revenue and the unit value on the day.