Online Gaming in New Zealand

The Gambling Act 2003 (the Act) is the first law in New Zealand to regulate remote interactive gambling. Remote interactive gambling is prohibited, with limited exceptions for the Lotteries Commission, the Racing Board (now Lotto NZ and TAB NZ) and for sales promotion schemes that take the form of a lottery. Interactive gambling is classified as gambling via a communication device, including computers, telephones, radios and similar devices. It is also illegal to advertise and promote online gambling. Residents of New Zealand are allowed to gamble with offshore websites and to take part in gambling outside New Zealand.

It is illegal for anyone to operate remote interactive gambling from within New Zealand other than racing and sports events provided by the TAB (a state-run gambling operator); remote gambling conducted by the New Zealand Lotteries Commission (NZLC); and sales promotions that are lotteries. Fines of up to NZD 50,000 for organizations and NZD 10,000 for individuals can be imposed for participating in unauthorized remote gambling.

In June 2010, the New Zealand courts declared that playing poker is a game requiring skill and dismissed charges brought against .net poker site domains that were thought to be violating New Zealand's Gambling Act of 2003. The courts ruled that .net websites are not gambling sites and are not related to their .com partner sites. They also ruled that .net advertisements are not promotions for gambling operators and that poker tournaments are not gambling but a form of competition. The verdict for the .net sites such as PokerStars.net and the Asia Pacific Poker Tour was based on the fact that they were not specifically promoting online gambling.

In April 2015, the government announced it was going to clamp down on online overseas betting by punters who were sidestepping the TAB's domestic monopoly. That policy direction culminated in 2025 amendments to the Racing Industry Act 2020 that make TAB NZ the sole legal operator of online sports and racing betting and empower regulators to require offshore bookmakers to geo-block New Zealand customers.

In March 2024, Cabinet agreed in principle to regulate online casino gambling, imposing a 12% gaming duty on offshore online casino providers from July 2024 as a transitional measure. In June 2025, the government introduced the Online Casino Gambling Bill, which established a formal licensing regime under which up to 15 online casino licenses are being auctioned and overseen by the Department of Internal Affairs, with strict harm-minimization, advertising and consumer-protection rules.

The Act is now in force, with supporting Online Casino Gambling Regulations issued in 2026. The license auction ran from 29 September to 12 October 2026, attracting 32 bidders and concluding after 10 rounds at NZ$15 million per licence; 11 entities won the right to apply for the 15 licenses, and winning the right to apply does not guarantee a license. The fully licensed regime is expected to be operational in 2027. In the interim, online casino advertising is prohibited and no new providers may enter the market; only providers already operating in New Zealand may continue under transitional provisions.

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