{"id":777029027,"date":"2025-07-15T08:54:50","date_gmt":"2025-07-15T11:54:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777029027"},"modified":"2026-04-21T21:01:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T00:01:20","slug":"bill-to-regulate-online-casino-gambling-passes-first-reading-in-new-zealand-parliament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/bill-to-regulate-online-casino-gambling-passes-first-reading-in-new-zealand-parliament","title":{"rendered":"Bill to regulate online casino gambling passes first reading in New Zealand parliament"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The proposed legislation would allow up to 15 licences for online casino gambling operators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

New Zealand.- The Online Casino Gambling Bill<\/a> has passed its first reading in the New Zealand parliament today (July 15). The legislation, introduced by minister of internal affairs Brooke van Velden<\/strong>, would allows for up to 15 online gambling licences<\/strong> to be auctioned, introducing safeguards to the currently unregulated online market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

van Velden said in a Tuesday statement: \u201cCurrently, New Zealanders can legally access thousands of offshore gambling websites. But the market is unregulated, so there are no player safety standards<\/strong> or oversight of harm minimisation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy intention with this bill is to ensure that online gambling is safer for New Zealanders<\/strong> who wish to gamble online to do so. In addition, companies providing this service contribute to tax revenue and funding the services that treat gambling harm in New Zealand.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Department of Internal Affairs<\/strong> would enforce the regulatory system, with all costs recovered from fees on licensed gambling companies. Fines of up to NZ$5m (US$3m)<\/strong> could be applied to companies for breaking the rules. Companies applying for a licence would need to provide a harm prevention strategy and information on compliance history.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
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Brooke van Velden.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cThe most important part of this bill is protecting New Zealanders who enjoy gambling online by introducing robust safety measures for licensed operators. The bill will now proceed to select committee, and I would encourage interested New Zealanders to have their say when public submissions open,\u201d van Velden said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


<\/p>\n\n\n

\n\t\t\tSee also:<\/span><\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tSee also:<\/span> Bill to regulate online casino gambling introduced in New Zealand<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The proposed legislation would allow up to 15 licences for online casino gambling operators.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":226,"featured_media":21929,"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 New Zealand Online Casino Gambling Bill has passed its first parliamentary reading, proposing a regulated market with up to 15 online casino licenses. This legislation aims to introduce player safety standards, harm minimisation, and tax contributions from licensed operators, shifting from the current unregulated offshore access. The Department of Internal Affairs will enforce the new framework, with significant fines for non-compliance.","focusai_entities":"Brooke van Velden, New Zealand parliament, Department of Internal Affairs","focusai_location":"New Zealand","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (1.0), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (1.0), operator_casino (1.0), affiliate_publisher (0.8), product_ux (0.7), tech_data (0.7), marketing_crm (0.8), payments_fraud_aml (0.7), investor_analyst (1.0), supplier_vendor (1.0), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"What are the next steps?","query":"What is the anticipated timeline for the bill's progression through the select committee and subsequent parliamentary stages, and when might the licensing auction commence?"},{"label":"Impact on existing operators?","query":"How will the proposed regulatory framework impact offshore operators currently serving New Zealanders, particularly regarding their market access and potential transition to a licensed model?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16336,24628,154,158],"tags":[225,338,4138],"class_list":["post-777029027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australasia-news","category-highlight-of-the-week","category-legislation-news","category-slider-home","tag-legislation","tag-new-zealand","tag-online-gambling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777029027","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\/226"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777029027"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777029027\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777029038,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777029027\/revisions\/777029038"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777029027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777029027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777029027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}