All 32 New Zealand standards,
organised by Theme

Section 9 of the Gambling Act 2003 provides that gambling is unlawful unless authorised by or under the Act. The general prohibition is the anchor on which every authorised gambling activity rests; everything not expressly authorised - including conducting online casino gambling without a licence under the Online Casino Gambling Act 2026 - is unlawful.

Section 16 of the Gambling Act 2003 prohibits publishing, or arranging the publication of, advertisements for overseas gambling within New Zealand. From 1 May 2026 (commencement of the Online Casino Gambling Act 2026) the penalty structure was uplifted: individuals face pecuniary penalties up to NZD 300,000 and bodies corporate up to NZD 5,000,000 for unlicensed advertising - an order-of-magnitude increase from the original NZD 10,000 / NZD 50,000 ceiling.

Part 10 of the Gambling Act 2003 vests the Secretary for Internal Affairs (through DIA) with licensing, inspection, search-warrant, document-demand, injunction and prosecution powers across all classes of authorised gambling. These powers extend by operation of the Online Casino Gambling Act 2026 to the new online casino regime - DIA is the single supervisor across all NZ-licensed gambling.

The Racing Industry Act 2020 - as amended by the Racing Industry Amendment Act 2024 (commencement 27 June 2025) - confers exclusive rights on TAB NZ for fixed-odds and totalisator wagering on NZ-licensed racing and approved sports events. The Online Casino Gambling Act 2026 does NOT extend to sports or racing betting; TAB NZ's monopoly is preserved unaltered. Operators applying for online casino licences cannot use those licences to accept sports or race wagers.

Part 5 of the Gambling Act 2003 constitutes the New Zealand Lotteries Commission (Lotto NZ) as the statutory monopoly operator of lotteries, instant kiwi and Keno. The Online Casino Gambling Act 2026 does not disturb this monopoly. Online lottery-style products served to NZ residents by any party other than Lotto NZ remain unlawful.

The Online Casino Gambling Act 2026 caps the number of online casino licences at 15. Awards are made through a three-stage process: (i) Expression of Interest with probity assessment (July 2026), (ii) ascending-clock auction (September 2026), (iii) full licence application against published criteria (October 2026 - 1 December 2026 deadline). The ascending-clock mechanism is unusual globally - Denmark and Sweden use capped licences but without ascending-clock auctions; only Greece's HGC and certain US state casino tenders have used analogous auction-style awards.

No person may have 'significant influence over more than three licences'. The cap operates at the beneficial-ownership level: corporate groups, common-control structures and parties acting in concert are aggregated. Entain plc has publicly stated (CEO Stella David, full-year 2025 earnings) that it will seek the maximum three licences. SkyCity Entertainment Group is publicly preparing at least one licence application.

Licences are issued for an initial 3-year term with a single renewal option extending up to a maximum of 5 years' further tenure (8 years total). To prevent licence-warehousing, operators must commence operations within 90 days of licence issue AND remain active for a minimum of 270 days in any rolling 12-month period. Failure to meet either trigger entitles DIA to commence revocation proceedings.

The Online Casino Gambling Act 2026 designates the Department of Internal Affairs (through the Secretary for Internal Affairs) as the licensing authority and ongoing regulator. The internal team is the 'Online Gambling Regulatory Implementation' (OGI) unit. No new specialist body has been created. The Gambling Commission retains an appellate role for licensing decisions only.

Unlicensed conduct and unlicensed advertising attract civil pecuniary penalties up to NZD 300,000 for an individual and NZD 5,000,000 for a body corporate - a substantial uplift from the Gambling Act 2003's NZD 10,000 / NZD 50,000 caps. DIA may pursue these via formal warnings, enforceable undertakings, take-down notices and ultimately civil-penalty proceedings in the High Court.

Licence applicants must satisfy DIA's fit-and-proper test across the operator entity, parent group, beneficial owners with significant influence, and key personnel (directors, CEO, Compliance Officer, Money Laundering Reporting Officer). Specific test criteria will be published in regulations expected mid-2026; the core test mirrors DIA's existing standard for land-based casino licensing.

The Offshore Gambling Duty (Gaming Duties Act 1971, Part 2C, inserted by the Taxation (Annual Rates) Act 2024) took effect 1 July 2024 at 12% of offshore gambling profits (NZ-resident wagers minus NZ-resident prizes). The rate was raised to 16% by select-committee amendment to the Online Casino Gambling Bill - 4 percentage points ring-fenced for community returns (grassroots-sport and community-organisation grants), funded through to the Lottery Grants Board distribution pathway. Quarterly returns are filed to Inland Revenue (IRD), aligned to the GST cycle.

Section 319 of the Gambling Act 2003 authorises a sector-funded Problem Gambling Levy that funds Te Whatu Ora and accredited providers (PGF NZ, Hāpai te Hauora, Salvation Army Oasis). For online casino licensees, the levy is set at 1.24% of profits and applies from licence commencement. The levy is in addition to the Offshore Gambling Duty and to GST.

Under the remote-services rules in force since 1 October 2016 (Goods and Services Tax Act 1985), GST at 15% applies to remote gambling services supplied to NZ residents where the operator's NZ-sourced taxable supplies are at least NZD 60,000 in any 12-month period. The Online Casino Gambling Act 2026 does not displace this obligation; licensed operators face GST + OGD + PGL stacking, producing an effective tax load materially higher than the OGD figure alone.

Application fee and annual licence fee are NOT YET PUBLISHED. The Online Casino Gambling Act 2026 empowers regulations to prescribe the fee schedule; DIA has indicated the fee regulations will be made in mid-2026 ahead of the auction process. Until publication, fee figures should NOT be quoted - any consultancy, brokerage or compliance vendor citing specific NZ application or annual fees is inferring, not citing.

Section 9.6 of the AML/CFT Act 2009 requires every reporting entity to establish, implement and maintain a written AML/CFT programme grounded in a documented risk assessment. The programme must cover customer due diligence, ongoing monitoring, suspicious-activity reporting, record-keeping, vetting and training. From licence commencement, online casino operators must produce the programme on demand and refresh the underlying risk assessment at least annually.

Reporting entities must conduct standard customer due diligence for occasional transactions at or above NZD 10,000 and for establishing a business relationship (every account opening at an online casino). Enhanced due diligence applies for politically exposed persons (PEPs), trusts, complex corporate structures and high-risk jurisdictions. Verification must be conducted before establishing the business relationship - i.e. before the player can deposit and play.

Reporting entities must file Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) to the NZ Police Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) without unreasonable delay where the entity has reasonable grounds to suspect that a transaction may relate to money laundering, terrorism financing or other serious offending. Failure to file or to file timely is enforced as a breach of the AML/CFT Act.

Reporting entities must retain customer-identification records, transaction records, training records and SAR-filing evidence for at least 5 years from the end of the customer relationship (for identification records) or 5 years from the transaction (for transaction records). DIA inspection rights reach the full retention period.

SkyCity Entertainment Group's 2024 AML enforcement is the most-cited recent precedent for the regulator's posture. The Federal Court of Australia approved a AUD 67m AUSTRAC penalty against SkyCity Adelaide on 7 June 2024 for serious and systemic AML/CTF non-compliance December 2016 - December 2022. In September 2024 the NZ High Court imposed a NZD 4.16m civil penalty on SkyCity. Separately, SkyCity Auckland was suspended for 5 days (9-13 September 2024) over host-responsibility breaches dating to 2018-2023.

The Online Casino Gambling Act 2026 sets a statutory minimum age of 18 years for online casino gambling - notably LOWER than the 20-year minimum at New Zealand's land-based casinos under s. 175 of the Gambling Act 2003. Operators must implement an age-verification system to prevent under-18s from registering, depositing or wagering. Technical standards for the verification system will be set in regulations expected mid-2026.

Licence applicants must file a harm-minimisation strategy as part of the application. The strategy must address the operator's approach to player monitoring, intervention triggers, self-exclusion handling, advertising restraint, staff training and contribution to the Problem Gambling Levy. The Problem Gambling Foundation NZ, Hāpai te Hauora and Salvation Army Oasis have argued the statutory framework is insufficient and that additional advertising bans and inducement prohibitions should be added at regulation stage.

The Online Casino Gambling Act 2026 contemplates a national self-exclusion register that all licensees must consult and honour. The architectural specifics - query model (pre-session vs nightly re-screen), minimum duration, identity matching standard, operator funding model - are deferred to regulations with a STATUTORY deadline of December 2027. Land-based casinos already operate a Multi-Venue Exclusion programme; the online register is expected to interoperate.

Mandatory player-protection limit tooling (deposit, loss, wager, time-on-site, reality checks) will be set by regulation expected mid-2026. Whether statutory defaults apply (Spain-style) OR purely player-set (UKGC-style) is not yet confirmed. PGF NZ, Hāpai te Hauora and the Salvation Army Oasis advocated for statutory defaults and explicit affordability checks in their submissions.

Affordability and source-of-funds check requirements are not in the Act and are expected to be set in regulation. The UK has moved to a tiered affordability-check regime (UKGC 2024-2025); NZ regulations have not yet signalled whether they will mirror, exceed or undercut that standard. PGF NZ has advocated for an explicit affordability-check framework.

From 1 May 2026, only operators holding a New Zealand online casino licence may advertise online casino gambling within New Zealand. Advertising by unlicensed offshore operators is prohibited under the uplifted s. 16 Gambling Act 2003 regime (NZD 300,000 individual / NZD 5,000,000 body corporate penalties). The licensee-only window applies across all media: broadcast, digital, programmatic, social, sponsorship, sports broadcast and OOH.

The Online Casino Gambling Act 2026 prohibits affiliate marketing for online casino - a structural divergence from UKGC, MGA, AGCO and most international regimes (which treat affiliates as the operator's accountability with vetting + monitoring requirements but do not ban them). NZ's affiliate ban means operators cannot acquire NZ players through revenue-share or CPA affiliate channels, materially affecting acquisition economics.

Detailed advertising content restrictions - sponsorship rules (sport, cultural events), broadcast watershed, prohibition on inducements / welcome bonuses in unsolicited communications, mandatory RG warnings - are deferred to regulations expected mid-2026. The Advertising Standards Authority's Gambling Code interacts; operators should track both the DIA regulation drop and ASA Code amendments.

DIA analysis (using DOT Loves Data) reported NZD 1.36 billion in NZ-resident deposits flowing to mostly-offshore online operators over October 2023 - September 2025; over NZD 100 million per month. Casino-style platforms drove a +38% year-on-year spend increase; sports betting spend fell -37% (consistent with TAB NZ's 27 June 2025 monopolisation). Operators based in Cyprus, Gibraltar, Great Britain and Malta accounted for >96% of identified offshore spend.

Entain plc CEO Stella David stated at the company's full-year 2025 earnings that Entain will seek three online casino licences in New Zealand - maxing the 3-licence per-group concentration cap. Entain already operates 'betcha' jointly with TAB NZ for sports/racing under the monopoly. Bet365, Super Group and 888 Holdings / Evoke have been named in industry coverage as expressing interest.

In April 2026, coordinated NZ High Court class-action proceedings were filed against Hillside Gaming ENC + Hillside Sports + CEO Denise Coates personally (bet365); against Super Group with CEO Neal Menashe and subsidiaries (Betway / Spin); and against SkyCity. Causes of action include Gambling Act 2003, Financial Markets Conduct Act, Contract and Commercial Law Act and Fair Trading Act breaches. SkyCity exposure is estimated at NZD 64.5 million in online revenue (Feb 2020 - Feb 2026 player-loss window). Bet365 has formally objected to NZ jurisdiction (NBR).

The select committee process - driven by >5,000 submissions (3,966 raising community-returns concerns from grassroots-sport and community-organisation backers) - produced a structural compromise: the Offshore Gambling Duty was raised from 12% to 16%, with the 4 percentage point uplift ring-fenced for community returns through the Lottery Grants Board distribution pathway. DIA estimates NZD 10-20 million in community returns in the first 12 months from 1 January 2027.