The New Zealand government has opened a public consultation on online gambling in an effort to reduce harm caused by problem gambling in the country.
The country allows residents to play at offshore sites and its estimated that New Zealanders spent about $246 million on gambling in the last 18 months.
The public and industry stakeholders are asked to share their thoughts in a Public Discussion Document, and comments are to be submitted by September 30 to the Department of Internal Affairs’ Online Gambling Team.
“Our current Gambling Act is from 2003 and like a lot of legislation it is being challenged by the place of the Internet,” said Internal Affairs Minister Tracey Martin in a press release. “New technology has changed people’s behavior dramatically and the way New Zealanders gamble has changed too. It’s now timely to check whether our gambling rules are appropriate.”
At present, Lotto NZ and the TAB are the only New Zealand organizations able to offer online gambling, and it is illegal for overseas online gambling operators to advertise to New Zealanders, even though it is legal for them to play offshore sites.
“The problem we have is that, unlike domestic gambling operators, offshore online gambling operators do not pay to mitigate the harm their industry causes, nor do they contribute to the community through funding grants,” Martin stated. “We also need to assess whether they sufficiently protect vulnerable New Zealanders, particularly our young people who can spend a lot of time online.”
