{"id":28196,"date":"2022-03-18T06:55:32","date_gmt":"2022-03-18T09:55:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=28196"},"modified":"2026-04-23T10:25:27","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T13:25:27","slug":"new-zealand-announces-review-after-us1-81bn-spent-on-gambling-in-2020-21","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/new-zealand-announces-review-after-us1-81bn-spent-on-gambling-in-2020-21","title":{"rendered":"New Zealand announces review after US$1.81bn spent on gambling in 2020\/21"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Despite the Covid-19 pandemic and several lockdowns, spending on gambling was up 17 per cent when compared to the previous financial year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">New Zealand.- The Department of Internal Affairs has revealed that\u00a0<strong>New Zealanders spent NZ$2.63bn (US$1.81bn)<\/strong>\u00a0on the four main types of gambling in the 2020\/21 financial year.\u00a0Spending was up 17 per cent when compared to the previous financial year, with spending on slot machines (known as &#8216;pokies&#8217;) outside casinos up 23 per cent to NZ$987m \u2013 the highest level in five years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Internal affairs minister<strong> Jan Tinetti<\/strong> has announced a government review\u00a0to target and reduce harm suffered by people who use slot machines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Andree Froude<\/strong>, a spokesman for the\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/nz-gaming-machine-association-criticises-levy-increase\" target=\"_blank\">Problem Gambling Foundation<\/a>, welcomed the scrutiny but expressed concern about the rise in gambling spending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Froude said: \u201cIt certainly shows that Kiwis returned to gambling after the lockdown restrictions ended, spending the equivalent of NZ$730 for every adult in the country. Over 60 per cent of pokie venues are situated in medium-high to very high deprivation areas so the money being lost is coming from people who can least afford to lose it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He said Class 4 pokies are the most harmful form of gambling with nearly 50 per cent of people seeking help for gambling citing pokies in pubs, clubs and TABs as their main form of gambling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>See also:&nbsp;<\/strong><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/nz-gaming-machine-sector-complains-govt-wont-fund-facial-recognition\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">NZ gaming machine sector complains govt won\u2019t fund facial recognition<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Despite the Covid-19 pandemic and several lockdowns, spending on gambling was up 17 per cent when compared to the previous financial year.<\/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":"New Zealand's gambling expenditure surged 17% to NZ$2.63bn in FY2020\/21, with slot machine (pokie) spending reaching a five-year high of NZ$987m. This increase has prompted the Department of Internal Affairs to initiate a government review aimed at mitigating harm from slot machines, particularly given their prevalence in socio-economically deprived areas.","focusai_entities":"Department of Internal Affairs, Jan Tinetti, Problem Gambling Foundation, Andree Froude","focusai_location":"New Zealand","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.9), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Regulatory Impact Analysis","query":"What specific regulatory changes or operational restrictions are anticipated from the Department of Internal Affairs' review, and how might these impact the Class 4 gaming machine sector's GGR and NGR projections?"},{"label":"Operator Strategy Shift","query":"How are major Class 4 pokie operators in New Zealand planning to adapt their responsible gambling frameworks and community engagement strategies in anticipation of stricter regulatory oversight?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,28],"tags":[229,23907],"class_list":["post-28196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-australasia-news","category-casino-news","tag-gambling","tag-land-based-casino"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28196","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=28196"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28196\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28203,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28196\/revisions\/28203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}