Revealed: How offshore casinos infiltrated Otago uni flatting scene, paying students thousands to illegally promote online gambling
Tuesday, 7 October 2025
This video is part of this week's episode of Paddy Gower Has Issues, made with the support of New Zealand On Air.
There are six men in front of me, all wearing black balaclavas.
But they aren’t hardcore criminals - they are University of Otago students.
And they represent the new kind of Kiwi gambler.
“Most flats, most nights have some sort of gambling going on inside,” one tells me.
“I’m an online slot type of guy,” says another.
We’re on Castle St in Dunedin - perhaps the most famous student flatting street in the country. And we have hidden their faces so they can speak out about the dodgy world of online casinos.
My Paddy Gower Has Issues investigation found online casinos/slots/pokies are taking over the New Zealand gambling scene.
And these students were right into it. They talked of groups pooling money and going in on “features” - a bonus offered by the casinos.
“Like, come back to the flat with the boys and do a couple of features,” says one. “Hope we win big and yeah, most of the time we don't. But when we do it's pretty f…… good.”
The students show me a video - a group of students on a flat floor celebrating a $3000 win.
But of course, it doesn’t always go that way.
“It's just an entertaining way to watch your money go down the drain,” one student says.
It becomes clear that gambling is a much bigger part of youth culture than a lot of New Zealanders realise.
I watch the students casually pull an online casino up on a laptop - and gamble away $300.
And I soon find out online casinos have a much deeper influence than this on these students.
How online casinos pay our students to illegally promote gambling
These students aren’t just playing, they have been paid to promote gambling on social media like Instagram.
And that’s not exactly legal.
“I’d say a huge sum of people down here [at university] have definitely done that and the figures they're offering are just crazy,” a student says.
They tell me they are paid US$20 (NZ$34) to US$50 (NZ$85) per post on Instagram - usually just a 30-second video.
“The money is just too good to say no to,” a student says.
The posts are for offshore casinos - they tell me about one called Rainbet which is based in the Caribbean.
“Obviously it's pretty marginal stuff legality-wise, but as a student that's such a good amount of money to be raking in for doing next to no work that you may as well do it,” one tells me.
Advertising these online casinos is actually against the law in New Zealand - not that it stops the advertising from popping up everywhere online.
The students I meet all say they have stopped working with the online casinos.
“I was in a group of two and I was making a few grand a week,” says one.
“We were making US$2000 (NZ$3400) a week split between three of us,” says another.
And it seems a lot of the flats on Dunedin’s most famous student street were in on the earner.
“We worked it out that Rainbet was paying Castle St about $14,000 a week,” a student says.
‘A bloody good laugh’: Skits about student life used to promote online pokies
The students promoting the casinos are usually poking fun at uni life.
Lots of posts make jokes about gambling away student loans.
Sam Smith-Soppet, a journalist from university magazine Critic Te Arohi, has been investigating and says: “In terms of the actual content, quite often it'll be skits.
“One I saw the other day was someone got a $300 ticket for driving a golf cart on Castle St. They ran a couple hands of blackjack. And they did quite well and paid off the ticket.
“It's a bloody good laugh.”
However, Smith-Soppett says organisations like Rainbet are taking advantage of students with little money.
“I found that there were some pretty predatory sites going out of their way to target New Zealand - particularly university students - into promoting these gambling sites that are run offshore.”
Busted: Department of Internal Affairs strikes on student casino influencers
It is a criminal offence to advertise an offshore casino in New Zealand, one that's punishable by a $5000 infringement fine.
The student gambling scene soon got big enough for the Department of Internal Affairs - which manages the gambling industry - to strike.
A number of warning notices were issued and some social media accounts belonging to influencers disappeared suddenly.
“When it comes to the students, we took an education first approach,” says Vicki Scott, director of gambling at Internal Affairs.
“Our team reached out to the students directly and just explained what the prohibition actually requires - and the fact that they were breaking the law. A lot of them just immediately stopped offending.”
‘I started betting at 14’ - online gambling starts young
The students tell me that gambling has become a big part of their lives.
“A lot of sports gambling, like chuck on a couple of multis [multiple bet on multiple sports] throughout the week, a lot on the league, on the NFL,” says one.
They all say gambling started when they were much younger - with “loot boxes” while gaming.
(Loot boxes are a popular form of paying for bonus features in kids’ games. Players hope they get something special in the box that makes them feel good.)
One student tells me just how easy it was to start betting. He was only 14, and didn’t need to verify his identity.
Since then he’s placed more than 16,000 bets with the same online casino.
Another student says: “There's not many blockers stopping kids from seeing any of that stuff, any of the gambling and it's all so colourful.”
They all believe online gambling is targeting kids.
“There's just so many sounds. It's really stimulating and you can see it's targeting young minds.”
‘Gambling is becoming normalised’ - students speak out
The students say they agreed to talk to me to warn of how gambling is becoming part of everyday life.
“I think it's become normalised whether through influencers or sports games. I don't think that's a good thing,” says one.
“It's being advertised everywhere - YouTube ads, Instagram ads, live sports,” says another.
“It started with TAB and all their promotion and then Betcha’s coming in every third ad on YouTube. Influencers are promoting it as well,” says a third. “It's just everywhere and kids are getting onto it at quite a young age.”
One of the group has a particularly strong message: “I started gambling so young and just had no idea what I was really doing. Many of the other boys had the same problem. I want to speak out so that maybe parents can let their kids know the dangers of gambling and how much of a trap it really is.”
Another says online gambling comes with many risks.
“I reckon it's just such a bad addiction. It changes the way people think about money. They'll eat two-minute noodles for dinner but then they'll also spend $200 the same day on some gambling. You just justify it to yourself and it's pretty ridiculous.”
The same student says his parents have no idea about his gambling.
“[They] wouldn't have a clue. They're really against that stuff and I'm starting to see why.”
We contacted Rainbet for this story. It did not respond.
We also contacted Entain, which owns the TAB and Betcha. This was its response: “We are committed to providing a safe and responsible betting experience, with all advertising conducted in line with the relevant codes and including responsible gambling messaging.”
Watch full episodes of Paddy Gower Has Issues on Three, Tuesdays at 7.30pm, or stream any time on ThreeNow.
Where to get help for problem gambling
Gambling Helpline Aotearoa 0800 654 655 or text 8006 (available 24/7)
Problem Gambling Foundation 0800 664 262
Māori Gambling Helpline 0800 654 656
Vai Lelei Pasifika Gambling Helpline 0800 654 657
Gambling Debt Helpline 0800 654 658
Youth Gambling Helpline 0800 654 659
Asian Family Services Gambling Hotline 0800 862 342
Further problem gambling services can be found at the Ministry of Health website
If it is an emergency or you or someone else is in immediate danger, call 111.