Your team launches a national scratch-and-win campaign. Total prize pool: $8,000 — comfortably under NSW’s $10,000 threshold. No permits needed, right? Two weeks later, South Australia’s Consumer and Business Services gets in touch. Turns out, SA requires a permit for any instant-win promotion regardless of prize value. The potential fine? Up to $50,000.
This is the competition permit trap. And Australian brands fall into it constantly.
The problem isn’t that compliance is complicated — it’s that most marketers assume national rules exist when every state plays by its own. Four jurisdictions require permits. Four don’t. And the four that do have thresholds, definitions, and carve-outs that look nothing alike. Here’s what you actually need to know to run promotions without risking a regulatory headache — or worse.
What Actually Triggers a Competition Permit Requirement?
Competition permits in Australia only apply to games of chance — promotions where the winner is selected randomly. Think prize draws, instant-win mechanics, scratch-and-reveal cards, and spin-the-wheel activations.
Games of skill, where winners are chosen based on merit or creativity (best photo entry, best 25-words-or-less response), don’t require permits in any Australian jurisdiction. This distinction matters more than most brands realise, because the line between chance and skill isn’t always where you’d expect it.
A judged competition with a subjective panel? Skill. A “random draw from all correct entries”? Chance — even though entrants had to answer a question. If there’s any random element in winner selection, regulators treat it as chance. Getting this classification wrong at the briefing stage is the first domino that knocks everything else over.
The Four States That Require Competition Permits
Four Australian jurisdictions require trade promotion permits for games of chance. The other four — Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, and Tasmania — don’t require permits, though they still impose conditions on how promotions must be run. Here’s the state-by-state breakdown that every brand manager running promotions needs to understand.
New South Wales — The $10,000 Threshold and Multi-Year Authority
NSW requires an Authority to Conduct a Trade Promotion Lottery when the total prize pool for a single game of chance exceeds $10,000 and the promotion is open to NSW residents. Since the Community Gaming Regulations update, NSW has operated a multi-year authority model — you can apply for a 1-year ($468), 3-year ($722), or 5-year ($975) authority that covers all qualifying promotions during that period.
A $975 five-year NSW authority costs less than a team lunch at a Sydney restaurant — but running a single promotion without one can cost you $50,000 in SA alone. If your brand runs more than one promotion a year, the three or five-year option is a no-brainer.
There’s also a liquor restriction worth flagging: no more than 20 litres of alcohol at 20% ABV or below, and no more than 5 litres above 20% ABV, can be awarded per promotion to NSW residents.
South Australia — The Instant-Win Catch Nobody Expects
SA’s threshold is $5,000 for standard prize draws. But here’s the trap most brands miss: any promotion using printed scratch-and-win, break-open, or similar instant-win ticket mechanics requires a Trade Promotion Lottery Licence regardless of prize value.
A $500 scratch-and-win activation at a single SA store still needs a permit. This catches more brands than any other state-specific rule in Australia.
SA distinguishes between two licence types: Major Trade Promotions (prize pool over $5,000, no instant tickets) and Instant Prize Trade Promotions (using scratch or break-open mechanics at any value). Each has its own application pathway through Consumer and Business Services. Miss this distinction and you’re operating illegally — even if your total prize pool is modest.
Australian Capital Territory — The Lowest Threshold in the Country
The ACT sets the bar lowest at $3,000. Any game of chance where the prize pool potentially winnable by ACT residents exceeds this amount requires a permit. For national promotions with a decent prize pool, this threshold is almost always triggered.
One nuance that trips people up: the $3,000 applies to the value available to ACT residents specifically, not the national total. But unless you’re geographically restricting your promotion — and most brands aren’t — regulators will assume ACT residents could win any prize in the pool.
Northern Territory — The Interstate Exemption
The NT requires a permit for games of chance with a prize pool over $5,000, but offers a practical exemption: if you already hold a permit for the same national promotion in another state, you don’t need a separate NT permit. This effectively means that if you’ve got your NSW, SA, or ACT permits sorted, the NT is covered without additional paperwork.
What About Victoria, Queensland, WA, and Tasmania?
These four jurisdictions don’t require competition permits. But “no permit” doesn’t mean “no rules.” Promotions in these states must still comply with the Australian Consumer Law, and each state imposes conditions on how trade promotions must be operated.
Victoria requires promoters to keep records of entries and demonstrate that draws were conducted fairly. Queensland mandates that promotions must not mislead consumers about their chances of winning. The mistake brands make is treating “no permit required” as “anything goes.” It isn’t — and the ACCC can still pursue misleading or deceptive conduct under federal law regardless of state permit requirements.
How Do Competition Permits Work for National Promotions?
This is where brands most frequently get burned. A national promotion open to all Australians must comply with every state simultaneously. In practice, this means your promotion must meet the requirements of the most restrictive jurisdiction — and you need permits from every state that requires one.
For a typical national game of chance with a prize pool over $10,000, you’ll need permits from NSW, SA, ACT, and potentially NT. Your terms and conditions must satisfy all eight jurisdictions. And the free-entry requirement — consumers must be able to enter without making a purchase — applies nationally under the Australian Consumer Law.
Trevor Services manages this exact complexity for brands running national promotional campaigns. When you’re coordinating across eight jurisdictions simultaneously, having a promotional partner that handles the permit logistics means your marketing team can focus on the creative and the strategy rather than chasing state regulators.
What Does Non-Compliance Actually Cost?
The permit fees themselves are modest — a few hundred dollars per state. The penalties for getting it wrong are not.
In South Australia, fines for operating an unlicensed trade promotion lottery can reach $50,000. Under the Australian Consumer Law, the maximum penalty for a corporation that breaches the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 is the greater of $50 million, three times the benefit obtained, or 30 per cent of the corporation’s adjusted turnover during the breach period.
Even without maximum penalties, the reputational cost of a voided promotion — having to re-run a draw, refund entries, or issue a public correction — is often more damaging than the fine itself. Consumers remember brands that botched their competitions. They don’t remember which brand had perfectly filed permits.
Building Permits into Your Campaign Planning Process
The brands that handle competition permits well don’t treat compliance as a last step. They build it into campaign planning from the briefing stage. Here’s what that looks like in practice.
First, determine your mechanic early. The permit question is entirely determined by whether your promotion involves chance or skill. Make this decision at the briefing stage, not after creative is signed off. A late switch from a prize draw to a skill-based competition — or vice versa — cascades through everything from T&Cs to media plans.
Second, apply early. Most state regulators recommend applying at least 14 business days before your promotion starts. In practice, allow three to four weeks as a buffer, particularly for SA which can have longer processing times during peak promotional seasons.
Third, consider multi-year authorities. If you run promotions regularly — and most consumer brands do — NSW’s five-year authority at $975 is an investment that eliminates one jurisdiction’s paperwork for half a decade.
Fourth, get your terms and conditions right the first time. Every trade promotion requires comprehensive T&Cs that satisfy all relevant jurisdictions. Platforms like Trudy from Trevor Services can help ensure your promotional campaigns are structured correctly from the outset, with compliance built into the workflow rather than bolted on as an afterthought.
The Strategic Advantage Most Brands Overlook
Here’s what most permit guides won’t tell you: compliance isn’t just risk mitigation. It’s a competitive advantage. Brands that have their permit framework sorted can launch promotions faster, run them nationally without geographic exclusions, and avoid the costly mid-campaign pivots that happen when someone in legal spots a problem two weeks after launch.
The brands running the most ambitious, most creative promotional campaigns in Australia aren’t held back by permit complexity. They’ve already done the work — and that preparation is what gives them the freedom to be bold.
Planning your next promotional campaign and want compliance handled properly from day one? Get in touch with Trevor Services.
