This is not about “safer gambling” — it’s about legitimising one of the most harmful forms of gambling. The bill creates a licensing regime for online casinos, allows advertising of these high-risk products, and opens the market to offshore operators — embedding gambling into government revenue streams and increasing public exposure to addiction risks.
Here’s what the bill really does, why it’s dangerous, and how it shifts government’s role from protecting communities to promoting harmful gambling industries.
This bill follows a familiar corporate–state pattern. First, prohibit or restrict an activity. Then, “regulate” it in a way that legitimises and monetises it. Finally, entrench it into revenue streams, making the state a partner in its growth.
New Zealand’s gambling policy was designed to limit harm, not to expand access. This bill reverses that principle and locks in a legal structure that future governments may find politically and financially hard to dismantle.
This bill is not about protecting people — it’s about building a profitable gambling market under government licence. It does not reduce gambling harm — it risks increasing it.
If you believe public health should come before revenue…
If you believe addictive products should not be normalised and advertised…
If you believe government should regulate to protect, not promote…
Then now is the time to oppose this bill.
“Access to health and wellbeing is not served by legitimising harmful gambling products.” — Ukes Baha