{"id":22785,"date":"2021-09-20T13:44:07","date_gmt":"2021-09-20T16:44:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=22785"},"modified":"2026-04-23T15:31:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T18:31:16","slug":"new-zealand-campaigners-call-for-tougher-gambling-laws","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/new-zealand-campaigners-call-for-tougher-gambling-laws","title":{"rendered":"New Zealand campaigners call for tougher gambling laws"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Anti-gambling campaigners have encouraged other councils to follow the city of Christchurch&#8217;s decision not to relax its current gambling and TAB regulation policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">New Zealand.- Days after the city of\u00a0<strong>Christchurch decided not to change its current policy<\/strong>\u00a0on gambling and TAB venues, anti-gambling groups have called for tougher gambling laws in other areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Gerhart Berking<\/strong>, a spokesperson for the Mapu Maia, said Pasifika peoples (people living in New Zealand who have migrated from the Pacific Islands) are exposed to an uneven level of gambling harm compared to the rest of the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mapu Maia is an integrated national public health and counselling service for Pacific islanders that aims to reduce gambling harms in the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Phil Siataga, a Canterbury-based consultant for Mapu Maia,<\/strong>\u00a0said that gambling is a hidden problem and added that &#8220;people slide into pathological harm&#8221;, especially now that the Covid-19 pandemic has &#8220;brought more economic pressure on people.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He encouraged\u00a0<strong>other city councils to follow the example of Christchurch<\/strong>\u00a0and adopt policies to change the gambling environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Pacific Islanders in New Zealand account for 21 per cent of all people seeking treatment for gambling. According to Siataga, they are more than twice as likely to suffer moderate to severe gambling harm than any other group.<strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/new-zealand-christchurch-will-not-relax-gambling-rules\">The city of Christchurch<\/a>\u00a0has a sinking lid policy that doesn&#8217;t allow operators to transfer their poker machine licences to other locations, but the city still has more poker machines per capita than the national average, with\u00a0<strong>3.3 machines per 1,000 residents.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Anti-gambling campaigners have encouraged other councils to follow the city of Christchurch&#8217;s decision not to relax its current gambling and TAB regulation policies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Christchurch's decision to maintain its stringent gambling and TAB regulation policies, including a \"sinking lid\" on poker machine licenses, has prompted anti-gambling advocates, notably Mapu Maia, to urge other New Zealand councils to adopt similar measures. This initiative aims to mitigate disproportionate gambling harm, particularly among Pasifika communities, who exhibit significantly higher rates of problem gambling.","focusai_entities":"Gerhart Berking, Mapu Maia, Phil Siataga","focusai_location":"New Zealand, Christchurch, Canterbury","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (1.0), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Impact on GGR\/NGR?","query":"What is the projected long-term impact of a widespread 'sinking lid' policy on the GGR and NGR of land-based gaming operators in New Zealand?"},{"label":"National Regulatory Influence?","query":"How might the Christchurch decision influence the national regulatory framework for gaming machines, particularly concerning B2B licensing and operational expansion?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,156,158],"tags":[23911,23907],"class_list":["post-22785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-australasia-news","category-regulation-news","category-slider-home","tag-gambling-regulation","tag-land-based-casino"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22785","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=22785"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22785\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22813,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22785\/revisions\/22813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}