No special treatment for NZ casinos in online gambling rules

There will be no special treatment for New Zealand’s domestic casinos in the upcoming regulation of online gambling.
The Government is in the process of regulating and legalising online gambling, currently a regulatory grey area in New Zealand, with the new regime likely to kick off at the beginning of 2026.
Last week, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden released a trickle of new information on how exactly the Government would regulate online casino gambling.
These details included penalties up to $5 million for offering in New Zealand, the ability to issue take-down notices to remove unlicensed websites or advertising, and strict entry requirements.
Much of this was already known or assumed, and in many ways, what wasn’t said was more interesting.
New Zealand’s gambling industry, largely made up of SkyCity and Christchurch Casino, have been lobbying the Government with concerns that deep-pocketed international operators, which haven’t been paying tax in New Zealand (GST aside), will outbid them for online casino licences.
The regime will commence with 15 online casino licences (of three years each) that will be auctioned off as a revenue-collecting exercise.
Christchurch launched its online casino, based in Malta, in 2023.
In October, when Newsroom asked Christchurch Casino if securing a licence was a sure thing, its chief executive Brett Anderson said “No, not at all”.
He believed large online gambling providers will be very keen to protect their market share, something they will be able to do in an auction environment.
“One of the things that we have raised [with the minister] is you could have an online regulating gaming environment for New Zealand with no New Zealand entities involved”.
New Zealand’s largest casino group, SkyCity, launched its online casino, also run out of Malta, in 2019.
Since then it has complained about facing an “uneven playing field”, as it pays taxes and complies with laws concerning advertising, while competitors did not.
In that same October article, SkyCity chief executive Jason Walbridge said the new regime should “Reward businesses that have been obeying the law, contributing to New Zealand [by paying tax] and minimising harm”.
 “New Zealand companies have the greatest interest in protecting New Zealanders, we’re here, we’ve got skin in the game here, and no one is going to work harder than us or other casinos in New Zealand to ensure we’re meeting the regulations.”
Similarly, Anderson said the company wasn’t “some faceless offshore entity”.
“There’s a door to knock on around host responsibility and harm minimisation. It’s going to be a lot easier for us to be held accountable if we’re domiciled in New Zealand.”
Responding to questions about the regulatory regime details she released last week, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden said there would be no preferential treatment, “NZ-domiciled operators will not be given preference.
“New Zealand has international agreements around non-discrimination between domestic and offshore providers.”
Such agreements are commonplace in government procurement rules and free trade agreements.
Another interesting aspect is the omission of geoblocking – a practice used in other countries, including Australia, though its effectiveness is dubious.
The Department of Internal Affairs has been looking into this since 2019 and both National and NZ First have supported getting internet service providers to block illegal gambling operations in the past.
When National announced its plans to regulate online gambling before the 2023 election, Finance Minister Nicola Willis (then National deputy and finance spokesperson) was clear that internet filters were to be used.
“Other countries that have set up licensing regimes of this sort have been able to use geo-blocking and other measures to enforce those licensing regimes. It would be pretty simple. It would go like this: If you’re providing an online gambling service in New Zealand and you are not licensed and you are not registered, you will be shut down,” she said at the time.
However, Van Velden said geo-blocking was now off the cards.
“Geo-blocking, or internet filtering, was considered but will not be part of the regulatory regime because it would be very resource intensive to maintain and is easily circumvented via a VPN.”
She said blocking could be done voluntarily to prevent being caught out and slapped with a significant fine.
“Reputable offshore operators who don’t hold a New Zealand licence are likely to voluntarily geo-block their sites to New Zealand consumers to ensure they are not operating outside the law.”