The Department of Internal Affairs

Department of Internal Affairs | Te Tari Taiwhenua

Building a safe, prosperous and respected nation



Online Gambling Regulatory Implementation 

Overview

The New Zealand Government is introducing new legislation to regulate online casino gambling to ensure a safe, fair and well-controlled online gambling environment. Online casino gambling is not new in New Zealand. Every day New Zealanders gamble on thousands of offshore gambling websites. Regulating this sector will protect consumers, minimise gambling harm, limit opportunities for crime and dishonesty, and provide regulatory oversight of online gambling providers operating in New Zealand.

A diagram that shows the two parallel processes of the Online Gambling Implementation programme: Legislation development (run by DIA Policy) and implementation (run by the OGI team). The Policy stream has three steps: legislation development, select committee engagement, and legislation enacted. The OGI stream has 6 steps: international collaboration, key stakeholder engagement, licensing applications open, application assessment, licenses issues, and compliance and monitoring. The first of the OGI steps (International Collaboration) starts in between the first and second Policy steps. The Policy stream concludes with the legislation enacted before the OGI stream opens licensing applications.

The implementation of this system is a two-phase process running in parallel, involving legislation development and implementation, with distinct responsibilities.

Legislation Development

The legislation development is led by the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) Policy team. They are responsible for developing the legislative framework that will govern online gambling in New Zealand.

This process involves:

  • Drafting the Online Gambling Bill: Setting the legal foundation for how online gambling will be regulated.
  • Public and stakeholder consultation: Engaging with industry, public health experts and community stakeholders to shape the legislation.
  • Select Committee process: Allowing public submissions to refine the Bill before it becomes law.
  • Defining Regulatory Objectives: Ensuring consumer protection, responsible gambling measures and industry integrity.

Once the legislation is finalised and passed by Parliament, the focus shifts to implementation and preparing for operations.

Implementation of the regulatory system

While the legislation development is underway, the Online Gambling implementation (OGI) team will be engaging with international regulators and equivalent systems to shape operational design. Once the legislation is in place, the OGI team will lead the practical rollout of the new regulatory system. This will focus on:

  • Designing the licensing system: Establishing processes for operators to apply for and maintain a New Zealand online gambling licence.
  • Building regulatory infrastructure: Developing the digital systems and compliance frameworks to monitor licensed operators.
  • Launching the licensing process: Opening applications and assessing applicants.
  • Enforcing compliance and consumer protections: Setting up mechanisms to monitor operator behaviour, handle complaints, and address non-compliance.
  • Public education and awareness: Ensuring the public understands the risks associated with gambling and the benefits of using licensed platforms.

This approach will form a robust and well informed legislative framework, and an implementation process that produces effective consumer protection, responsible gambling and regulatory compliance.

Key announcements

The latest announcements about the online casino gambling regulations:

Key features of the new system

There are three key features of the new regulatory system to support a safer online gambling environment:

  • Facilitate a safer and compliant regulated online gambling market.
  • Prevent and minimise online gambling harm.
  • Limit opportunities for crime and dishonesty and provide protections within the regulated online gambling market.

Stay informed

Updated 16 July 2025

If you’re interested in following our journey as we develop and implement the new online casino gambling regulatory system you can register your interest.

Register your interest to receive updates and notifications (Office forms)

Latest updates

OGI Question & Answers – submitted via operator survey and webinar – 15 July 2025 (PDF, 246KB)

OGI Webinar for potential operators presentation slides – 9 July 2025 (PDF, 1.2MB)

New Zealand Online Casino Gambling Bill Release – 1 July 2025- Campaign Monitor

Watch the latest update from NZ’s Online Casino Gambling Implementation programme – 10 June 2025 - YouTube

Stay informed on the Online Gambling Implementation Programme – 1 April 2025 - Campaign Monitor

OGI engagement approach

The Department is committed to transparent, informed and constructive engagement. Our engagement approach is designed to gather insights, lessons learned and best practices to support the implementation of New Zealand’s online gambling regulatory regime.

Principles of our engagement

  • Transparent and open communication.
  • Engagement will be focused on gathering and sharing information.
  • All discussions will be conducted in good faith, with a focus on fact-finding and operational development.
  • All engagement will be impartial and fair.
  • DIA will provide regular updates on key regulatory milestones to maintain transparency.

Confidentiality and information sharing

  • Information shared during engagement will be treated with confidentiality in line with New Zealand’s public sector standards.
  • DIA may publicly share aggregated insights to ensure transparency but will not disclose commercially sensitive information or proprietary information.
  • Any data or reports shared by stakeholders should align with applicable privacy and confidentiality laws.

How you can engage

Public

The public will be able to engage on the Online Gambling Legislation through the Select Committee process. The Select Committee are now accepting submissions. 

You can visit the Parliament website to find out more and lodge a submission: Visit the Parliament webpage for Online Casino Gambling Bill

Register your interest to receive updates and notifications (Office forms).

Gambling industry, including potential licence applicants

You can ask us a question, which we will publicly answer on this page to ensure transparency and access to information by all interested parties. We aim to batch publishing answers to your questions every two weeks.

Ask us a question (Office forms)

Questions and answers

Updated 4 August 2025

1. What are the indicative dates of the two-phased Implementation Programme?

The legislation is expected to be enacted in early 2026. Those who have registered their interest will receive the latest updates on any key announcements about timeframes, including when the Select Committee process starts (which includes formal public consultation on the Bill). To receive these updates, please register your interest (Office forms)

2. Are online casinos in New Zealand legal or illegal?

Online casinos based in New Zealand are illegal, however it is legal for New Zealanders to gamble on offshore online casino websites. Online casino gambling is currently an unregulated activity and there are no guarantees of player safety. It is also illegal to advertise offshore online casino gambling in New Zealand under section 16 of the Gambling Act. Please see Factsheet #27 (PDF, 179KB), which explains the prohibition in more detail. 

The Department of Internal Affairs is developing the online casino gambling legislation and building the new regulatory system, with the intention of licensing up to fifteen platforms that must meet a range of regulatory requirements. DIA will regulate the new system where it will be illegal for unlicensed operators to operate or advertise in New Zealand.  

3. Can you please explain why the DIA hasn’t informed the public on their website which overseas online casino websites are paying fees to NZ? Most people would rather support those types of companies.

While there are some offshore online casino operators who are registered for GST and must pay a gambling duty to Inland Revenue, online casino gambling is an unregulated and unlicensed activity in New Zealand. For more information on offshore gambling duty please visit: Offshore gambling duty (IRD website) 

Until the regulatory system is implemented, and licenses are awarded to operators who meet a range of regulatory requirements, the Department of Internal Affairs is unable to channel players towards unregulated online casino websites. For now, the advertisement of any offshore casino website is prohibited under section 16 of the Gambling Act.  

4. Can you publish a list of any organisations that have submitted interest or applications so far?

The purpose of registering interest in the Online Gambling Implementation Programme is so that those registered can be kept up to date with the latest information about the programme. No applications for online casino gambling licences have been received as this process has not started yet.

We cannot share the details of individuals and organisations who have registered their interest to receive updates about the programme for the following reasons:

  • Providing this information would be likely to prejudice the supply of similar information, or information from the same source, and it is in the public interest that such information should continue to be supplied (s2(ba)(i) of the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act).
  • To protect the privacy of identifiable natural persons (s9(2)(a) of the Act.
  • Due to the commercial sensitivity of the licensing process, disclosing the names of those who have registered interest could undermine fairness and integrity of the process and increase the risk of collusion or undue influence (s2(b)(ii) of the Act.

5. With legislation due to be introduced shortly, how does the government intend to ensure that the part(s) of the proposed Bill that deals with self-exclusion tools and protocols upholds best practice, given the number of other jurisdictions that have already been through this process? 

Cabinet has agreed that a purpose of the Bill will be to regulate the market to prevent and minimise gambling harm. Processes related to self-exclusion protocols for players and operators are still being developed as part of the regulations that support the Bill. In developing the regulations, the Department has considered how other jurisdictions have developed their self-exclusion strategies and processes.

6. In case there are more license applications from the Operators than the maximum licenses offered (15), what will be the method of decision making on who gets the license?

The Online Casino Gambling Bill includes a three-stage licensing process to determine who may apply for one of the 15 available licenses. Applicants will need to meet a range of regulatory requirements at an expression of interest stage to then be able to participate in a competitive process (the first competitive process will be an auction). The competitive process will determine the 15 operators that can apply for an online casino gambling licence as part of the final stage.

As this is part of the proposed Bill, you may like to submit on this topic through the Select Committee process.

7. Will operators who are currently in the market (and who secure a licence) be able to seamlessly retain their existing customers? Or more simply, will existing New Zealand-based customers be able to continue to play with their current operator of choice using the same account without material disruption?

Schedule 1 in the Online Gambling Bill says that if an operator applies for a licence for one of their brands to conduct online casino gambling before 1 July 2026 the prohibition on conducting online casino gambling without a licence does not come into effect until the earlier of:

(a) The day after the Secretary notified the person that the Secretary has granted or refused to grant the licence; and
(b) 31 December 2026.

This means that those who apply for a licence can continue to operate the brand the application relates to until the outcome of the licence application is determined. This will allow New Zealanders to continue to play with their operator of choice where an application for licence has been received by the regulator.

There is no exemption from the prohibition on advertising to New Zealanders without a licence. This means operators cannot advertise until they have been granted a licence.

As this is part of the proposed Bill, you may like to submit on this topic through the Select Committee process.

8. Could you please clarify which products will be permitted under the forthcoming Online Casino Bill? For example, will offerings such as Bingo, Poker, Keno, Virtual Sports and Show Games be allowed under a New Zealand online casino licence?

The Online Casino Gambling Bill (Section 5) defines online casino gambling as including participation in:

  1. Chance based games – such as those using random number generators (e.g. slot machines, lotteries)
  2. Casino table games – including blackjack, poker and baccarat.
  3. Computer-simulated sports betting – where players bet on outcomes of simulated sporting events.

A licence will not be granted for online gambling that is substantially similar to and competes with protected New Zealand lotteries. The twice-weekly national lottery draws, which consists of Lotto, Powerball and Strike, will remain exclusively with Lotto NZ.

TAB NZ will have exclusive rights to offer all sports and race betting products listed under the Racing Industry Act 2020.

As this is part of the proposed Bill, you may like to submit on this topic through the Select Committee process.

9. In press releases and on your website states the draft new Online Gambling Act would be published in April 2025. As of 26 June 2025, it still has not been released. When will it be made available for public review?

The Bill to regulate online casino gambling was introduced on 30 June 2025. It can be found here Online Casino Gambling Bill 178-1 (2025), Government Bill – New Zealand Legislation

10. Will the online gambling revenue be subject to the same requirements to contribute 40% of the revenue back to community funding opportunities so the pool of available funding to clubs, sports, community groups is not impacted adversely if people start to spend more online than at actual pubs on gambling, reducing the overall amount available to community groups?

Licensed online casino gambling operators will not be required to make community returns. Government has decided not to require operators not to make community returns. While funding from gambling achieves a significant good for communities, it also creates a level of dependency which is difficult to sustain. It also creates perverse incentives to increase gambling activity as a means to increase revenue streams for community organisations. In addition, by adding further financial requirements on top of tax, duties and levies, New Zealand would become one of the highest taxed jurisdictions for online gambling, making licences less attractive and valuable.

There is a risk that competition from the new online casino operators will have an effect on land-based gambling, and community distributions from other types of gambling over time. However, we do know that Class 4 and Lotto NZ revenues have been growing in recent years – when looking at year-on-year unadjusted expenditure - despite strong growth in online casino gambling.

There is insufficient data available to quantify any impact on sports or other community funding, and it remains to be seen how regulating online gambling influences gamblers' behaviour.

As this is part of the proposed Bill, you may like to submit on this topic through the Select Committee process.

11. Overseas online operators are targeting New Zealand players via social media, gaining early market share. How does the regulator plan to prevent this ahead of the license auction and protect future licensed operators?

The online casino market is currently unregulated in New Zealand, and operators of offshore online casinos already have a market share.

Under section 16 of the Gambling Act 2003, it is illegal to promote any offshore gambling operators and breaches could lead to a fine of up to $10,000 per offence.

DIA has already issued a $5,000 fine to a prominent influencer and warnings have been issued to several other social media influencers who are illegally promoting online gambling. DIA is currently investigating a further 30 cases.

Additionally, DIA is aware of advertising on social media targeting New Zealanders from companies domiciled offshore. We are working with social media platforms to remove or geo-block unlawful gambling advertising targeting New Zealanders.

As part of the proposed legislation, DIA will have the power to apply for a Court-ordered fine for up to $5M against social media companies who are breaching the advertising prohibition. DIA will also have the power to issue take-down notices if unlicensed online casinos are offering gambling to New Zealanders.

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