New statistics from The New Zealand Lottery Inspectorate show that the New Zealand gambling market (casino games among other things) may be threatened by the great success of unlicensed gambling operators. Online casinos in New Zealand showed the largest growth in the third quarter, up to 11.9%, while land-based (i.e., land-based casinos) declined to 8.2 %. Online sports betting also showed an increase, up to 13.6% from the previous year.

All these figures come from international companies even though New Zealand licensed gaming companies have been banned from offering casino online (under current New Zealand gaming laws). It has been reported that around 300 million US dollars from New Zealand players in the gaming sector from last quarter was an illegal sum. New Zealand has not yet banned online gambling, nor does it allow it, which technically makes it illegal.

While the New Zealand government is still looking the other way, unlicensed iGaming operators have made huge profits on New Zealand players without having paid back any tax to the New Zealand state. With this in mind, The New Zealand government has produced a bill that has been voted through and which will take effect early next year. The purpose behind the law is to collect lost tax revenue from the foreign gaming companies.

The new New Zealand law that could radically change the illegal gambling market

When the new New Zealand Gambling Act enters into force on January 1, 2019, foreign bookmakers will have to apply for gambling licenses with the New Zealand Lottery Inspectorate. They will then have to pay 18% tax on their earnings made from New Zealand players.

Around$4.5 billion in profits have been made by foreign gaming companies, which means$810 million in lost tax revenue at the New Zealand tax agency due to the fact that no gaming law (until the beginning of next year) has forced the unlicensed gaming companies to apply for gaming licenses in New Zealand for their operations here.

Not only online casinos will be covered by this new gaming law. Even lotteries, betting agencies, and casino games offered on$Rush ships will need to apply for the same kind of mandatory gaming licenses.

It remains to be seen how this will affect the black gaming market and whether the domestic gaming market in New Zealand will be able to start taking back lost market share from the, at the time of writing, unlicensed online gaming companies. Hopefully the foreign bookmakers will start paying taxes on their winnings back to the New Zealand state.

No matter how it develops and will be in the next year, we will report on it here – so keep up to date by saving this blog among your bookmarks so as not to miss future news on the subject!

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