On the second of July 2020, three pairs of gambling responsibility measures were introduced by New Zealand's official gambling authority – the Gambling Inspectorate – aimed at combating potential indirect problems caused by the current ongoing coronavirus pandemic that first got its iron grip on the world in the first quarter of last year.

This means that all gambling operators with valid New Zealand gambling licences are responsible and obligatorily obliged to comply with these three temporarily introduced gambling responsibility measures in order to provide New Zealand players with the highest level of player protection and to prevent the possible development of gambling addiction in vulnerable players in the New Zealand population.

Now it appears in Spelinspektionen's news archive that the New Zealand licensed gaming operator Videoslots Ltd has breached one of the three different liability measures – the point of only being allowed to deposit a maximum of$ 5,000 per week or being allowed to lose the equivalent amount in weekly losses.

In other words, Videoslots Ltd has allowed New Zealand players to deposit over$ 5,000 – beyond what is allowed under the temporary gambling regulation (2020:495). Therefore, Spelinspektionen has introduced a so-called court order, i.e., an order with the support of the Court of Videoslots Ltd to immediately take measures to prevent players from being able to deposit more than 5000$ weekly.

For each week that this has not been fixed, a penalty of$ 250,000 will be awarded. As a reminder, the Spelinspektionen has already awarded$ 250,000 in fines with the hope that it will prompt Videoslots Ltd to take the necessary measures immediately.

The three responsible gaming measures temporarily imposed due to COVID-19

Then what are the three responsible gaming measures that Videoslots Ltd and other New Zealand licensed gaming operators will have to find themselves from the second of July 2020? The first was, as I said, the max$ 5000 bet and loss limit. That is, players may deposit a maximum of$ 5,000 and / or lose a maximum of$ 5,000 per week. Some buffer cannot be created, such as depositing$ 3,000 one week to deposit$ 7,000 the second week for a combined$ 10,000 in two weeks.

Second point is that new New Zealand players are only allowed to claim the$ 100 welcome bonus and a maximum of one bonus. This also applies if there are several different welcome offers offered at one and the same New Zealand licensed gaming operator.

The third and last point is that the New Zealand players may be logged in a total of a maximum of 10 hours on gaming sites and its various digital games. They must set a time daily or spend a maximum of 10 hours in total on everything gambling related.

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