Gambling (Problem Gambling Levy) Regulations 2022

This a significant increase for Gaming Machine Operators from 0.78% to 1.08%.  

Clubs New Zealand's take away from the Levy Review is that the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Internal Affairs have elected to do much of the same at a much greater cost.

In our submission on the levy review we argued that the current strategy is not working and this was evidenced by the fact that the level of harm in the overall population has not reduced since 2012, services provided are under utilised, and there is a general failure to meet the strategies objectives.

The last strategy saw $1.5 million allocated for funding harm minimisation technology, at the time of writing our submission, none of that $1.5 million had been spent.  There has been wide support for venue-based harm minimisation technology, however, this is met with increasing resistance from regulators.

During the consultation process, it was noted that online gambling is a serious concern and considerable resources from the levy would be allocated to studying and reducing online gambling harm over the next three years. Clubs New Zealand agrees that online gambling is an emerging and serious issue that needs to be addressed.  However, if money is going to be spent on online gambling research and harm reduction, then a levy weighting should be chosen that results in those providers that have an online offering making a larger contribution. The non-casino gaming machine sector has no online offering. It is logical therefore to choose a weighting that results in those providers that have an online offering bearing the bulk of the costs relating to online gambling.

Clubs New Zealand is incredibly supportive of the problem gambling levy, but it must be set at a reasonable level with clear, defined and achievable objectives.