Data made available by Kiwibank and other sources reveal that the financial institution’s customers are spending close to $30 million every month on online gambling sites.
This information has emerged as the country’s Department of Internal Affairs is engaged in an ongoing review to regulate online gambling that is currently in its third year.
Julia Jackson, Kiwibank’s head of purpose and sustainability said,
“When we look at our own customers, what we see is there is about $30 million a month that’s being spent on online gambling and 80 percent of that is offshore. It really is [an incredible amount] and what’s a really interesting trend that we’ve seen is from the first COVID lockdown in 2020, that number has massively increased and it hasn’t gone down.”
The offshore sites mentioned are largely based in territories like Malta, Cyprus, Gibraltar, Estonia, and Lithuania, which are ideal environments for companies seeking low taxes and the ideal region to offer internet gambling to the world.
Kiwibank offers a voluntary exclusion system, where customers can choose to block themselves from using their accounts to play on offshore sites. Over $7.1 million has been saved by users of this block since its introduction.
Long-Running Review
While Kiwibank implements harm-minimisation measures, the government has drawn criticism for not demonstrating a similar sense of urgency.
Its review into online gambling was launched in July 2019 and public submissions were completed by mid-2020. With no final report announced, Internal Affairs has advised that the review is “ongoing and we are expecting Cabinet to consider options later this year”.
Maria Bellringer, a gambling addiction researcher at Auckland University of Technology pointed to other countries’ practice of only allowing players access to reputable sites.
“I’m well aware of the consultation that went on in 2019 and I was very surprised that nothing came of it to date and disappointed,” she commented.
“Something needs to be done, I think a lot of people don’t realise what they’re getting into with online gambling. Online gambling is a high-risk factor for developing problem gambling,” she continued.
The author of the official cabinet paper on the matter, former Internal Affairs Minister Tracey Martin stated that this is a controversial issue and that former Racing Minister Winston Peters had blocked its progress before the 2020 election.
“It was a meeting in his office, with his staff, where he explained that the timing was probably not the best,” said “That paper never found its way to Cabinet,” she said in an interview.
