Online Casino Gambling
Guidance for providers required to exit the New Zealand market
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From 1 December 2026, providers are required to cease conducting online casino gambling in New Zealand unless they have applied for an online casino gambling licence.
After this date it will be unlawful, under section 9 of the Online Casino Gambling Act 2026, to enable people in New Zealand to participate in online casino gambling.
Providers that were operating in the New Zealand market as of 1 May 2026 may continue to do so for now, but should prepare to comply with the prohibition by 1 December 2026.
This guidance is for online casino providers who have not applied, or will not be applying, for a licence, including providers who:
- were unsuccessfully at either stage 1 (expression of interest) or stage 2 (competitive process/auction) of the 3-stage licensing process
- did not participate in the 3-stage licensing process.
You can support New Zealand’s orderly transition to a licensed online casino market by ensuring:
- clear customer communications
- timely return of all money owing to customers (including account balances and any winnings)
- New Zealand-facing activities stop, and
- access restrictions are implemented.
Preparing to exit the market
We recommend that providers who need to leave the New Zealand market from 1 December 2026 start preparing now. Our expectation is that providers exit the market in an orderly manner and meet contractual and reasonable expectations from their current customers.
Recommended actions
Review your New Zealand operations
As an initial step, providers should assess the extent of their New Zealand operations and customer base.
This could include:
- identifying customers currently based in New Zealand
- ensuring each identified customer has accurate and valid:
- contact details
- withdrawal methods.
Ensure your processes and systems enable an orderly exit
We recommend that you:
- understand the impacts of your market exit across your legal, compliance, marketing, payments, and customer support functions
- ensure your customers continue to have reasonable access to support while you are exiting the market
- have appropriate arrangements for:
- processing customer withdrawals of uncommitted funds
- account closure arrangements
- managing inactive or dormant accounts for people in New Zealand
- managing unclaimed balances related to people in New Zealand
- discontinuing any gambling-related credit facilities offered to people in New Zealand
- have adequate internal governance and oversight arrangements to ensure compliance with exiting the New Zealand market.
You are already required to not have any advertising and marketing activities directed at people in New Zealand. However, now is a good time to make sure that you are complying with this prohibition and that your processes and systems will continue to ensure your ongoing compliance.
Communicate your exit to your customers
Customer communication will be a critical part of a successful market withdrawal. Prior to your exit, we recommend providers prepare clear and timely communications explaining:
- your exit approach and key dates
- how customers can withdraw any uncommitted funds
- available customer support channels
- any actions customers need to take.
We recommend you encourage customers to withdraw any uncommitted funds well in advance of your market exit.
It’s important to note that we do not consider administrative communication to meet the definition of prohibited advertising. As long as you do not encourage participation in, or otherwise promote the availability of, online casino gambling, you can communicate to your existing customers. This includes notifying your customers that you’re exiting the New Zealand market and actions they may take.
Ensure your systems will enable access restrictions
By 1 December 2026 you should ensure that you have taken steps to prevent access to online casino gambling services by people in New Zealand.
We recommend you consider:
- how you will stop people in New Zealand from participating in online casino gambling (for example, based on IP address, GPS location, or something else), including people that may be temporarily visiting New Zealand
- how you will prevent the creation of new accounts by people in New Zealand
- how you will handle New Zealanders using your platform when they are not in New Zealand (for example someone who uses a New Zealand phone number or passport while living in a jurisdiction in which you a permitted to operate), and
- how you will stop someone temporarily in New Zealand from participating in online casino gambling.
You do not need to prevent an existing customer from accessing your platform to complete tasks that do not involve participating in online casino gambling. For example, you can allow customers to:
- contact you
- withdraw funds
- close their account.
If you are proposing to block people in New Zealand from accessing your entire platform from 1 December 2026, we strongly recommend you give your customers advance warning so they can withdraw any uncommitted funds
The requirement to withdraw from the New Zealand market is not an excuse to not fulfil your obligations to your customers.
Ongoing compliance
Once you have left the New Zealand market, it’s important that you continue to ensure that you are not conducting online casino gambling in a manner that enables a person who is in New Zealand to participate.
This includes ensuring:
- people in New Zealand cannot participate in your online casino gambling
- you are not advertising or marketing to people in New Zealand
- you are not offering credit to people in New Zealand for gambling purposes.
Advertising and marketing requirements
Providers should ensure they comply with all existing restrictions relating to advertising and marketing, which is prohibited under section 10 of the Online Casino Gambling Act. This includes any affiliate network or arrangement, social media campaigns, sponsorship arrangement, and digital advertising placements.
We recommend that you:
- withdraw from marketing channels aimed at, or popular with, New Zealand customers
- remove New Zealand targeting from digital advertising campaigns
- implement appropriate geo-targeting or geo-blocking controls to prevent advertisements being served to people in New Zealand
- implement controls to ensure ongoing compliance in any new advertising and marketing so that you do not advertise to people in New Zealand.
Consequences of non-compliance
The prohibitions under the Online Casino Gambling Act apply whether you are based in New Zealand or anywhere else in the world.
This means you may be subject to pecuniary penalties of up to $5 million (NZD) for serious breaches against the Act. This includes if you:
- conduct online casino gambling in a manner that enables a person in New Zealand to participate in the gambling
- publish or arrange to publish an advertisement relating to online casino gambling in a manner that enables the advertisement to be brought to the attention of a person who is in New Zealand.
The Department also has a significantly improved toolkit of formal and informal tools, which will play a key role in our compliance and enforcement approach. This includes co-operation with overseas regulators and licensing organisations.
