New Zealand’s problem gambling levy budget looks set to receive a 26% increase ($16 million) over the next three years if a proposal by the country’s Ministry of Health is successful.
Once approved, the revised budget proposed by the Ministry would provide $76.12 million to the levy, an increase from the $60.24 million budget for 2019-2022. The budget increase would allow for the implementation of a de-stigmatization strategy alongside culture-specific programs for Asian, Pasifika, and Māori communities.
Half of this increase would be provided by the Gaming Machine Association of New Zealand’s (GMANZ) collected profits. While GMANZ is one of four contributors to the levy and fully supports any necessary increases, the association has recently questioned the effectiveness of the levy, with new statistics indicating that more needs to be done.
GMANZ’s director, Peter Thrush argued that the percentage of problem gamblers in the country has remained steady at 0.2% for the past 25 years, suggesting that the levy itself is not producing the results that it is supposed to.
Problematic Trends
While the latter part of 2020 saw an uptick in gambling spending, fewer than 65 000 people sought out problem gambling treatment provided by ministry-funded services over 2020-2021. Considering that as many as 92 000 people were estimated to be suffering from mild to severe forms of gambling harm, this number falls far below ideal levels.
Reports indicate that as many as 230 000 adults in New Zealand have experienced at least one form of gambling harm within their household over the past year. Over 4,300 families have been recorded as receiving treatment for problems linked to an individual’s gambling.
Andree Froude, speaking on behalf of the Problem Gambling Foundation, offered an alternative perspective, stating that the 0.2% figure is only representative of the most severely addicted gamblers in the country, while the actual number of adults dealing with problem gambling at any level is much higher and harder to quantify.
Thrush stated that the association is more than willing to no increase its contribution by $8 million and agrees that pokies should fund the levy more than lotteries, casinos, and other forms of gambling. He did add that the contribution increase would have to produce better results as GMANZ is of the current opinion that the money is “disappearing”.
Pokies currently share 1.3% of their profits towards the levy’s budget, while Lotteries, widely accepted as the most benign form of gambling, are only contributing 0.4%.
The walls have eyes
Thrush went on to state that the ministry should dedicate a portion of the levy’s funds to the installation of facial recognition systems in bars and other gaming machine venues. This $6 million investment would allow for the tracking of problem gamblers and self-excluded players, and the prevention of further harm.
He added that some marketing campaigns created by recipients of the levy have drawn criticism for their stigmatization player and that while the ministry does have a new proposal on the table, in his opinion, it would be “more of the same”.
