{"id":16098,"date":"2021-03-23T14:41:41","date_gmt":"2021-03-23T14:41:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=16098"},"modified":"2026-04-23T20:56:58","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T23:56:58","slug":"pokies-spend-sets-new-record-in-new-zealand-in-q4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/pokies-spend-sets-new-record-in-new-zealand-in-q4","title":{"rendered":"Pokies spend sets new record in New Zealand in Q4"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Money spent on slots outside of casinos in New Zealand reached NZ$252m (US$178m) during the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

New Zealand.- The Department of Internal Affairs has reported that spending on pokies (slot machines) reached NZ$252m (US$178m)<\/strong> in the period from October to December 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That’s the highest quarterly spend since the Department of Internal Affairs began keeping records in 2007. It’s equivalent of every adult spending NZ$204<\/strong>,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overall annual gambling profits<\/strong> in New Zealand were down by $128m due to Covid-19 restrictions in pubs, clubs, and casinos, while lottery saw a 13 per cent increase<\/strong> in revenue year-on-year to NZ$631m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Department of Internal Affairs director of gambling Chris Thornborough said: “We’ve been tracking the pokie money through Covid, and we knew there was going to be an impact but we were surprised by the bounce-back once the pokie restrictions were eased<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peter Dengate Thrush<\/strong>, chair of the Gaming Machine Association, said that around NZ$300m worth of grants will be made to New Zealand communities<\/strong> “to keep sport and culture and art activities going all over the country”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u014ctorohanga District Council seeks controlled pokie expansion<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The \u014ctorohanga District Council wants to change its gambling policy in order to allow a controlled increase in pokie venues<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The proposed change in policy would allow an increase in the number of Class 4 (non-casino) gaming venues <\/strong>and electronic gaming machines in the district.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Problem Gambling Foundation said the new policy contravenes the Gambling Act.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Money spent on slots outside of casinos in New Zealand reached NZ$252m (US$178m) during the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":16099,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"New Zealand's non-casino slot (pokie) expenditure reached a record NZ$252m in Q4 2020, marking the highest quarterly spend since 2007, despite an overall annual gambling profit decline of NZ$128m due to COVID-19 restrictions. This surge in Class 4 gaming revenue is expected to generate NZ$300m in community grants, while a local council's proposal for controlled expansion faces opposition from problem gambling advocates citing contravention of the Gambling Act.","focusai_entities":"Department of Internal Affairs, Chris Thornborough, Gaming Machine Association, Peter Dengate Thrush, \u014ctorohanga District Council, Problem Gambling Foundation","focusai_location":"New Zealand, \u014ctorohanga","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.8), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.8), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Policy Conflict Impact?","query":"What are the potential legal and operational ramifications for Class 4 operators if the \u014ctorohanga District Council's proposed policy change is deemed to contravene the Gambling Act, and what precedent might this set for other local governance frameworks?"},{"label":"Future Revenue Projections?","query":"Given the significant Q4 2020 Class 4 EGM revenue bounce-back and the overall annual decline, what are the projections for New Zealand's total gambling GGR and NGR for 2021, considering ongoing regulatory scrutiny and potential local expansions?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,163],"tags":[512],"class_list":["post-16098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australasia-news","category-finance-news","tag-gaming"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/176"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16098"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16098\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16132,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16098\/revisions\/16132"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}