Responsible Gambling — Help, Limits & Aotearoa Resources

He kupu āwhina — a word of support

Kia ora. Kei te mōhio mātou ka raru ētahi tāngata i te petipeti. Mēnā ka raru koe, ka raru tō whānau rānei, kei reira ngā ratonga āwhina e watea ana, kore utu, ka rongo i ngā reo Māori, e rua tekau mā whā ngā hāora o ia rā, e whitu ngā rā o te wiki. Kāore he whakamā. Kāore he utu. Ko te āhuatanga matua, ko te whakapā atu — waea atu ki te 0800 654 656 mō te tautoko reo Māori, waea rānei ki te 0800 654 655 mō te tautoko reo Pākehā. Mā mātou koe e tautoko. Mā tō whānau hoki.

In English: Hello. We know that gambling causes harm to some people. If gambling is hurting you, or your family, free support services are available — they speak te reo Māori, they are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and they cost nothing. There is no shame in asking. The most important thing is the first call — dial 0800 654 656 for support in te reo Māori, or 0800 654 655 for support in English. We will support you. Your whānau will too.

Signs of gambling harm

Most people who develop a problem with online gambling do not notice it happening. The shift from "a bit of fun on payday" to "I cannot stop and I am hiding it" is gradual, and it is normal for the person experiencing it to be the last one to see it. The signs below are not a diagnosis — they are flags. If two or three feel familiar, that is enough reason to talk to someone on 0800 654 655. The helpline never asks for a label. You do not have to call yourself an addict to deserve help.

• Chasing losses. You lose, so you bet bigger to win it back. Then you lose that, and bet bigger again. The session does not end when you planned to stop.
• Hiding your play. You close tabs when your partner walks in. You move money between accounts so the household statement does not show it. You delete app history.
• Borrowing to gamble. Credit cards, BNPL, payday lenders, friends, family. Money you do not have, for a session you cannot stop thinking about.
• Missing whānau and work commitments. Skipping dinners, school events, deadlines, or sleep so you can keep playing.
• Lying about how much you spend. Underreporting losses to your partner, your parents, your accountant, yourself.
• Restlessness when you try to stop. Feeling irritable, anxious, low, or angry on the days you have committed to not playing.
• Gambling to escape feelings. Stress, grief, loneliness, boredom — and the session becomes the only thing that quietens it.
• Other people noticing. If someone close to you has raised it, take that seriously. They usually see it before you do.

None of these alone proves anything. But they are reasons to talk to a counsellor on the helpline. The conversation is free, confidential, and ends as soon as you want it to.

Tools that actually help

There is a difference between "tools the industry advertises" and "tools that change behaviour". The list below is the second category — measures that, used together, materially reduce harm. Use as many as you can stack.

• Deposit limits. Every reputable online casino lets you set a daily, weekly, and monthly deposit cap. Set yours before a losing session, not during one. Operators are required to delay any request to increase a limit (usually 24 hours minimum); they cannot delay a request to lower it. Lower first, then think.
• Loss limits. Independent of deposits — caps the actual money you can lose in a window. Tighter than a deposit limit because winnings reset it.
• Time-outs. A short cooling-off lock on the account, typically 24 hours, 7 days, 30 days, or 6 months. Useful when you can feel the chase coming on but you are not ready for full self-exclusion.
• Session reminders. Pop-ups that interrupt continuous play every 30 or 60 minutes. Turn them on. The interruption is the point.
• Self-exclusion. An operator-level ban on yourself — 6 months, 12 months, 5 years, or permanent. Some operators will let you re-open after the period ends; others (the better ones) require an active counselling step.
• Software blockers. Gamban, GamBlock, and BetBlocker run on your phone and laptop and block thousands of gambling sites, including most operators that serve NZ. Pair these with operator-level self-exclusion for the strongest stack.
• Bank-level blocks. ASB, ANZ, BNZ, Westpac and Kiwibank all offer card-level "block gambling transactions" toggles inside their apps. Turning it on adds friction; turning it off is delayed.
• The future NZ national self-exclusion register. The Online Casino Gambling Act 2026 requires the Minister of Internal Affairs to make regulations establishing a national self-exclusion register by 1 December 2027. Once live, a single registration will exclude you from every licensed operator that serves New Zealand. Until then, the operator-by-operator approach plus software blockers is the best we have.

A note on "fast payouts" — this site exists to track them, and we are proud of that. But fast payouts can also mean fast losses if your protections are off. If our payout-time coverage is useful to you, the matching responsibility is to read it alongside how to get the fastest payout with your limits already set. Speed should serve withdrawals, not chases.

NZ support services — who does what

New Zealand has a small but well-resourced gambling-harm sector. The services below are the ones a reputable counsellor will refer you to. Most are funded through the Ministry of Health gambling harm levy on the local industry — they do not take money from offshore casinos.

If a casino isn't honouring your self-exclusion

It happens. You self-excluded; the operator emailed you anyway, let you log in again, or quietly re-opened the account when the cooling-off period ended. This is a serious failure and you have options. Escalate in this order, and preserve evidence at every step:

1. Operator first. Email the casino's official support address (not live chat, which is harder to evidence) with the subject line "Self-exclusion breach — formal complaint". Reference your account ID, the date you self-excluded, and what happened. Ask for a written response within 14 days. Take screenshots of every login email, marketing email, or successful deposit that should not have happened.
2. The operator's licensor. If the operator does not resolve it, escalate to whoever licenses them. For most offshore operators serving NZ that is Curaçao eGaming, the Malta Gaming Authority (MGA), or the Anjouan Offshore Gaming Authority — the licence number is on the casino's footer. Each regulator publishes a complaints portal; the MGA's is the most responsive.
3. The Department of Internal Affairs. Once the Online Casino Gambling Act 2026 licensing regime is live and offshore operators are licensed to serve NZ, the Department of Internal Affairs becomes the relevant NZ regulator for those licensees. Until then, the DIA can still receive complaints about offshore conduct affecting NZ residents.
4. Independent ADR services. eCogra and the Independent Betting Adjudication Service (IBAS) handle disputes for many offshore operators. They are slow but free.

Preserve everything. Emails, screenshots, transaction records, chat logs. The most common reason a self-exclusion complaint stalls is that the player cannot prove the breach happened, not that it did not.

Five quick checks before you play

If you are going to gamble online, do these five things before you log in. They take ninety seconds and they are the difference between entertainment and harm.

1. Set a deposit limit. An actual number, today, in the operator's settings. Lower than you think you can afford to lose. The cap reduces immediately; raising it takes 24 hours and a conscious decision.
2. Set a session time limit. 60 minutes. 90 at most. Long sessions are how losses escalate. Use the operator's built-in session reminder, or set a phone alarm.
3. Never play with money you cannot lose. Rent money is not gambling money. Power-bill money is not gambling money. School-uniform money is not gambling money. If the household budget would notice, do not deposit it.
4. Never chase. Losses do not "come back" if you bet bigger; the house edge does not blink. The moment you find yourself thinking "one more, to get it back" — that is the moment to log out. Not in ten minutes. Now.
5. Take a 24-hour break if you are frustrated. Tired, stressed, drunk, angry, sad — any of those, and the session will go badly. Use the operator's 24-hour time-out. It is one tap.

If any of these feel hard to do, that is information. Call 0800 654 655.

Frequently asked questions

If gambling is harming you or your whānau, please do not wait — call the free, confidential, 24/7 Gambling Helpline Aotearoa on 0800 654 655, text 8006, or visit gamblinghelpline.co.nz. For support in Asian languages, Asian Family Services is on 0800 862 342.