{"id":32098,"date":"2022-07-26T06:33:01","date_gmt":"2022-07-26T09:33:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=32098"},"modified":"2026-04-23T06:31:43","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T09:31:43","slug":"nz-district-introduces-a-new-gambling-harm-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/nz-district-introduces-a-new-gambling-harm-policy","title":{"rendered":"NZ district introduces a new gambling harm policy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>There will be no new gambling establishments and existing venues will be unable to relocate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>New Zealand.- Gisborne District Council\u2019s\u00a0<strong>Gambling Venue Policy 2022<\/strong>\u00a0has entered into effect after being approved at a meeting on June 23. Its objectives are to control gambling growth, prevent and minimise gambling harm and facilitate community involvement in gambling decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The new policy also<strong>&nbsp;retains the sinking lid approach&nbsp;<\/strong>thus council will not grant consent for:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The establishment of any additional TAB venues or additional gaming machines, including Class 4 machines (pokies) in TAB venues under this policy.<\/li><li>The re-establishment of a TAB venue with or without gaming machines once a licence is no longer held for that venue and territorial authority consent is required.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The policy also establishes that the relocation of existing class 4 venues will only be allowed where earthquake strengthening is required, and the premises cannot continue to operate at that site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Any new location will be subject to the following conditions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The application for relocation will be publicly notified.<\/li><li>The venue operator of the new location shall be the same as the former location.<\/li><li>The maximum number of Class 4 gambling machines shall not exceed the number approved at the former location and are subject to any restrictions applicable under the Act.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Clubs that merge physically and legally<\/strong>&nbsp;may operate the number of gaming machines specified in their Class 4 venue licences at the time of application or 10 machines, whichever is less.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Joanna Noble<\/strong>, council chief of strategy and science said: \u201cThese initiatives are around Council advocating for improved gambling support services in our region, more tools for regulating gambling at the local government level and developing an inhouse ethics policy at Council to determine whether we should access gambling-related funding.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">New Zealand to invest US$47.9m in gambling harm initiatives<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>As previously reported by Focus Gaming News, the Labour Government of New Zealand has announced a<strong>\u00a0NZ$76m (US$47.9m) investment<\/strong>\u00a0for a new strategy aimed at preventing and minimising\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/kiwibank-customers-spend-au30m-a-month-on-online-gambling\" target=\"_blank\">gambling harm-related issues<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The strategy will be funded by a problem gambling levy paid by non-casino gaming machine operators, casinos,&nbsp;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/tab-nz-posts-net-profit-of-au15-3m-for-april\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">TAB NZ<\/a>&nbsp;and the New Zealand Lotteries Commission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Jan Tinetti<\/strong>, minister of internal affairs said the project was developed&nbsp;<strong>after a public consultation made in late 2021&nbsp;<\/strong>and was co-designed with service providers, community groups, industry bodies and people with lived experience of gambling harm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There will be no new gambling establishments and existing venues will be unable to relocate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":176,"featured_media":16683,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"The Gisborne District Council in New Zealand has enacted its Gambling Venue Policy 2022, adopting a \"sinking lid\" approach that prohibits new gambling establishments and additional Class 4 gaming machines, while severely restricting venue relocations. Concurrently, the New Zealand Labour Government announced a NZ$76m investment in gambling harm prevention, funded by an industry levy, underscoring a national commitment to stricter regulatory oversight and social responsibility.","focusai_entities":"Gisborne District Council, TAB NZ, New Zealand Lotteries Commission, Labour Government of New Zealand, Joanna Noble, Jan Tinetti","focusai_location":"New Zealand, Gisborne","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.9), investor_analyst (0.8), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (0.9)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Impact on Operator Valuations?","query":"How will the \"sinking lid\" policy and restricted relocation clauses in Gisborne, and potentially other New Zealand districts, affect the enterprise valuation and M&A prospects for existing Class 4 venue operators?"},{"label":"Regulatory Framework Evolution?","query":"What precedent does Gisborne's Gambling Venue Policy 2022 set for other territorial authorities in New Zealand regarding local-level regulatory control over gaming verticals and machine density?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,154,158],"tags":[23911],"class_list":["post-32098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australasia-news","category-legislation-news","category-slider-home","tag-gambling-regulation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32098","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=32098"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32098\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32106,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32098\/revisions\/32106"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}