Casino bill sparks warnings of ad ‘tsunami’ that will risk public backlash

Thursday, 11 September 2025

An expected surge in previously illegal advertisements for online casinos unleashed by a Government law change would be made more intense as gambling operators raced to establish market share, an expert has warned.

Parliament’s Governance and Administration select committee is currently hearing evidence on the Online Casino Bill that would see Internal Affairs auction licenses for up to 15 online casinos that would then be allowed to advertise to the public for the first time.

On Monday, Pub Charity managing director Martin Cheer warned Kiwis could expect to be bombarded by a “tsunami” of aggressive advertisements and inducements encouraging them to gamble online if the bill was passed.

Lindsay Mouat, chief executive of the Association of New Zealand Advertisers, doubled down on that warning today, saying there would be a “surge of advertising” on the first day the new regime came into effect as the licensed operators raced to establish themselves in the market.

“They are going to be wanting market share. They're going to want to be leaders.”

Mouat said the association did not want to enter the debate about whether online casinos should be established.

But the risk of a public backlash from a surge in advertising for the previously illegal product “and, with that, a loss of trust in responsible advertising, does concern us”, he said.

While successful auctions would raise money for the Government, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden has justified the bill on the basis it could help channel gamblers who visited unlicensed overseas online casinos to ones whose services were subject to regulation.

She made clear to The Post that she still believed it would be worth exposing the public to legal mainstream advertising for licensed online casinos in order to achieve that.

“The most important thing here, is there is an unregulated market already existing. People are already gambling online and there are thousands of websites that are available,” she said.

Cheer suggested on Monday the best option would instead be to make it as difficult as possible for Kiwis to access online casinos.

Measures to achieve this overseas have included blocking their overseas websites, which is the same approach the Government hopes to use to shut out unlicensed operators if the bill is passed.

The UK is among countries that have attempted to restrict online gambling by making the transfer of funds to gambling operators using credit cards illegal.

A study conducted by Britain’s National Centre for Social Research in 2024, four years after that ban came into effect, was nuanced but indicated it had been at least partially effective.

Problem Gambling Foundation spokesperson Andree Froude said on Monday that it was particularly concerned the Online Casino Bill would not ban licensed operators from promoting inducements such as “free bets” to entice prospective gamblers.

Van Velden indicated that she intended to take some steps to attempt to allay that concern.

“The law itself may not go into the level of detail of the concerns that people are currently looking at in select committee to do with inducements. There's a lot that I still can't say, because I'm working on some very detailed and technical regulations behind the scenes at the moment.

“You’ll just have to wait for those details but I am taking it very seriously. I'm making sure that I'm not trying to force too much advertising onto New Zealanders because I don't ultimately want to grow the market,” she said.

The Green Party supported the Online Casino Bill at its first reading, but co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick emphasised on Tuesday that didn’t mean it would ultimately vote in favour of it.

“We always take a harm-minimisation approach when it comes to substances or gambling, and we're thoughtful and considered and evidence-based.”

That meant the party would consider and reflect on the submissions that had been made to the select committee “when it comes to considering our position in caucus”, she said.

Mouat took particular aim at clauses in the bill that he said meant Kiwis with complaints about online casinos, including their advertising, would be expected to direct those in the first instance to the casino operator, and not to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).

“I couldn't imagine a worse situation than for someone who had a problem gambling situation who felt targeted by advertising, to have complain to that licensee rather than directly to the ASA,” he said, appealing for a change of course on that aspect of the proposed law change.