How we check the facts on two-up law, rules and history

Primary sources come first

For the law we read the Acts themselves on each state’s and territory’s legislation website, and we name the section. That means the Gambling (Two-up) Act 1998 (NSW), the Gambling Regulation Act 2003 (Vic) and their counterparts elsewhere. Our guide to why two-up is illegal lists all eight jurisdictions with their sections.

For the rules of play we use what regulators publish, from the Liquor & Gaming NSW two-up rules to the WA two-up policy and the Victorian and Queensland regulators’ pages. For history and words we use the Australian War Memorial and the Australian National Dictionary Centre, which is where our history and glossary starts. For a venue, we use its own page.

Sometimes an official site won’t load for us, as the NSW and South Australian legislation sites didn’t on 27 September 2026. Then we read the Internet Archive’s saved copy of that same government page, record which version we used and go back to the live page at the next check.

Secondary sources, named in the sentence

Some details only appear in newspapers, tourism sites, Wikipedia or gambling-maths websites. We use them when nothing better exists, and we name them where the fact sits: “Tourism Western Australia lists…”, “according to the hotel’s own site…”. A named source is a report, not a promise, so we suggest checking with the venue before you travel.

The casino maths on two-up odds and the house edge is one example. The five-odds rule behind the 3.125% house edge comes from secondary descriptions of casino play, so we show the maths and name the source rather than presenting it as any casino’s current rule.

What we leave out

If we can’t confirm a fact, it doesn’t go on the page as a fact. On 27 September 2026 we couldn’t find a two-up table or its rules on Crown Perth’s website, so we don’t say one is running. A 1798 account sometimes linked to two-up describes tossing coins, not the two-coin game. And venues haven’t published their 2027 times yet.

Where a gap matters to you, we say what the law does and doesn’t cover rather than filling it. Playing hours outside NSW and Tasmania are an example: the other Acts don’t set them. Each guide also carries a short note on what we’ve checked and what is still to do, with dates.

Dates and rechecks

Every page shows two dates: when it was published and when we last checked it. Every source in a page’s list has its own check date. We recheck the law, rules and venue pages before each Anzac Day, with the next round due before 25 April 2027, and again whenever we learn that an Act or a regulator’s rules have changed.

Corrections

If something is wrong or out of date, email hello@howtoplaytwoup.com with the page address, what needs fixing and, if you have it, the source. We check the claim against the primary source, correct the page and update its check date. What to send is covered on our contact page, and our disclosure explains why no payment can affect this.