It was on the 10th of december 2018 that the betting company Betway Limited was issued a gambling license by New Zealand's then newly formed New Zealand gambling authority under the name Spelinspektionen. The gaming license covers both online gambling (online casino gambling) and betting (sports betting) and was issued until 31 december 2023.

Then fast forward to June 18, 2021 when Betway Limited submitted a notification to the New Zealand gambling authority about a so-called occurred marketing incident that took place on June 10, 2021 where Betway Limited had created a marketing campaign where a full 200% match bonus was offered via their back office management system.

According to Betway Limited, the promotion was intended for certain specially selected customers, but due to an unwanted error, all customers were given the opportunity to take advantage of the new larger match bonus. In total, 53 bonuses were distributed to 52 different customers between 11:00-14:30 during 2021-06-10. This is then interpreted as a breach of the New Zealand Gambling Act under Chapter 14 paragraph 9 and Chapter 2 and 3 § 3.

New Zealand casino bonuses today

Due to the gaming laws in force since the first of January 2019 in New Zealand and its regulated digital gaming market, Betway awarded a fine of 100 000 NZD according to event number 21si1378 published on Spelinspektionen's official website – see their News Archive about the case.

The calculation of the sanction amount comes from the fact that Betway limited's gross turnover for 2020 was NZD 1,216,649,592. As a result, the sanction amount may not exceed NZD 121,664,959 and the New Zealand gambling authority also collected data on Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR) for the same year, which amounted to NZD 65,216,752.

The final verdict was then from Spelinspektionen that Betway Limited receives 100 000 NZD in fines/penalty fee and a warning / remark not to repeat the same mistakes again as it may be a much more expensive penalty fee due to the bookmaker not learning from their mistakes, so to speak.

Today it seems that New Zealand welcome bonuses (casino bonuses) may offer a maximum of 1000 NZD per newly registered unique New Zealand customer (registered in New Zealand with a New Zealand Social Security number).

In the past, it has been the case that only 100 NZD was offered, which was due to the current pandemic and concerns that New Zealand residents would start playing more than usual on the internet in the form of online casino games and sports betting.

It remains to be said, however, that as Betway Limited has learned from its mistake and whether new guidelines and greater security measures will be taken to prevent such technical mistakes from occurring again in the near future.

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