Howard-era minister voted to outlaw offshore casinos, then co-founded one

Howard-era minister De-Anne Kelly has been revealed as a co-founder and former part-owner of LuckyBet, an online casino registered in the Caribbean.

LuckyBet was formally warned by the communications regulator for allegedly contravening an Australian gambling law in September last year, after Ms Kelly had ceased to hold a stake in the company.

Decades earlier, Ms Kelly had voted to pass the Interactive Gambling Act (IGA).

The IGA banned certain forms of online gambling being offered to Australian customers, including digital slots and the placing of bets after sports matches have started.

Ms Kelly argued in support of the bill, saying it was needed because gambling websites were "exploiting the vulnerable and susceptible in our society".

The revelations come from newly leaked internal documents from the Curaçao Gaming Authority, the small Caribbean island's gambling regulator, which were released online last week by German activist Lilith Wittmann.

The ABC has sought to verify their contents through public sources where possible.

The files show that the former minister was both a major shareholder and the chief compliance officer of LuckyBet when it first applied for a gambling licence in March 2024, which the Curaçao regulator's staff noted was a "conflict".

Ms Kelly's son, Ian Parke, was listed as the company's director and the other major shareholder.

Documents later filed with the Curaçao regulator indicate that the Australian company, LBC Enterprises Australia Pty Ltd, through which Ms Kelly and other shareholders held a stake in LuckyBet, was removed as a shareholder on March 6, 2025.

The change left a company controlled by Mr Parke as the sole shareholder.

The casino's licence was revoked by the Curaçao regulator at the end of 2025; however, the LuckyBet website is still live.

Ms Kelly and Mr Parke did not respond to requests for comment.

Regulator unaware of Australian ownership at time of alleged breach

In the years since the IGA was passed in 2001, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has been charged with investigating unlicensed online casinos that are accepting Australian customers.

On August 7, 2025, the ACMA received a complaint about LuckyBet.

Seven days on, the regulator launched its investigation. It later found LuckyBet was unlicensed in Australia and provided "a prohibited" service to customers in Australia, according to the published warning.

The leaked documents were not available to the Australian regulator at the time.

"Information available during the investigation indicated that [LuckyBet]'s owners and directors were registered in Curaçao," a spokesperson from the Australian Communications and Media Authority told the ABC.

"We will assess the new information about a possible Australian ownership connection and determine whether any further action is warranted."

Minister's founding role declared to Caribbean regulator

Ms Kelly was the federal member for Dawson between 1996 and 2007, and served as the minister for veterans' affairs for 15 months.

She was listed as a major shareholder and the chief compliance officer of LuckyBet in an early business plan, dated March 2023, submitted to the Curaçao gambling regulator.

The Australian company that originally owned LuckyBet listed Ms Kelly's investment firm, Calliope Investments, as a shareholder along with more than a dozen other individuals and companies.

The former minister was serving as a member of Australia's Administrative Appeals Tribunal when LuckyBet applied for its gambling licence with the Curaçao regulator in March 2024.

She left that role before the licence was approved and the casino commenced operation.

While Ms Kelly's involvement was not announced in the press, her son was open about his role at LuckyBet.

Mr Parke was quoted in a press release announcing the sale of LuckyBet to Apple iSports in June 2025. "This partnership represents a major step forward for LuckyBet and the broader LBC ecosystem," he said.

Apple iSports later filed a notice with the US securities exchange saying this deal had fallen through.

Activist says 'public interest' drove her actions

Ms Wittmann, a Berlin-based activist and freelance journalist, says she tried "all conventional methods" to determine who owned several Curaçao-based casinos that were allegedly illegally targeting German citizens.

LuckyBet was not one of the casinos she was investigating.

Ms Wittmann says she monitored the Curaçao gambling regulator's activities and downloaded "every single regulatory document stored in the system".

This was in the "public interest", she says.

After working with several investigative journalists in Europe, Ms Wittmann released the entire dataset on a public website.

The Curaçao Gaming Authority says it is investigating a breach of its systems and "will take any further action that may be warranted based on the findings".