New Zealand is considering new measures to protect younger audiences from gambling harm. To that end, lawmakers plan to limit the number of overall iGaming licenses, require licensees to set up an age verification system, and ban gambling ads that might appeal to children.
New Zealand Wants to Launch Legal iGaming
The new measures come amid New Zealand’s efforts to introduce legal online gambling by 2026. Lawmakers believe that a legal framework would benefit the market by limiting the influence of the prevalent black market companies and generating significant tax benefits.
Lawmakers, however, are also concerned about the country’s problem gambling rates and children’s potential exposure to gambling content. Because of that, a variety of measures have been proposed to ensure that legal iGaming does not hurt the most vulnerable audiences.
The proposals, as mentioned, include a limited number of online gambling licenses to 15, age verification requirements, and a ban on ads that could appeal to children. Additionally, violators will have to pay fines of up to NZD 5 million (approximately $3 million).
A Legal Market Would Protect Vulnerable Players
Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden commented on the new proposals, highlighting the objectives of these proposals. He emphasized that New Zealand’s mulled market regulation does not seek to increase the amount of gambling that is happening online but to instead make iGaming safer for local players.
For context, New Zealanders can currently only gamble online via unregulated offshore websites that rarely offer sufficient problem gambling safeguards. A regulatory framework would instead channel players toward safer and regulated products.
The efforts to legalize online gambling and usher in a safer market came in response to a growing prevalence of online gambling. According to recent studies, many players prefer the convenience of gambling through their phones instead of going to land-based gaming halls. Not only has this caused tax money to leak to offshore websites but it has also exposed New Zealanders to the dangers of the unregulated offshore market.
In the meantime, statistics experts believe that legal online gambling is poised to experience significant growth in the following years, making the iGaming legalization something more than a socially responsible endeavor.
The government hopes to introduce the gambling bill in 2025 and potentially launch iGaming by 2026.
