21 August 2020
In this issue:
- Chris Thornborough Acting Director Gambling
- Guidance for Territorial Authorities
- Improving the Gambling Website
- Renew your Gambling Subscription
- GMP
- Gambling Harm Awareness Week
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Chris Thornborough Acting Director Gambling
Over the past few months, Chris Thornborough has been Acting Director Gambling while Lisa Docherty has been working on a cross-DIA COVID response, including the delivery of urgent amendments to the gambling regulatory framework.
Lisa has accepted a new role in DIA’s Regulatory Services. From 19 August 2020 she’ll be the Director Regulatory Strategy & Performance.
Chris, who will be familiar to many in the sector, will continue in the Director Gambling role.
Guidance for Territorial Authorities
In early August, DIA published renewed and refreshed guidance about the steps and considerations for reviewing and applying local gambling policy.
We have developed this collaboratively with the Ministry of Health, who published the last guidance of this sort in 2009. DIA would like to thank the Society of Local Government Managers (SOLGM) and Local Government New Zealand for their input and support.
Improving the gambling website
We are looking to improve the way information is ordered on the gambling website, and we need your help. We know:
- different people navigate different ways
- your needs and priorities vary
- people call things by different names.
So, we want you, real users, to give us feedback on how you think we should arrange our information. That way the result will make sense to you.
We have made a list of the main topic areas and are using an online card sort tool to gather feedback. It takes about 15-20 minutes to complete the exercise, and we really appreciate everyone’s input.
All you have to do is:
- drag and drop the cards into groups
- label your groups.
There are no wrong answers, and if you are not familiar with all the areas, just go with your best guess.
Gambling topics – how would you group them?
If you have any other feedback you can contact us at gambling@dia.govt.nz.
Thank you for your time.
Renew your Gambits subscription
We are reviewing our subscription lists in order to ensure we continue to provide relevant updates to the gambling sector.
If you want to continue to receive Gambits, which will cover general industry updates and reminders about compliance, please renew your subscription information.
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GMP
The most recent GMP figures have been published on DIA’s website.
From March 2020 to June 2020 quarters, GMP for New Zealand decreased by $90,221,105 or by 44.5 percent, reflecting 7-8 weeks of gambling venue closure due to COVID-19.
For the month of June, however, national GMP was an average of 6.4 percent higher than the same time in 2018 and 2019.
Given the move to Alert Level 3 in Auckland and Level 2 nationwide on 12 August, and the uncertainty ahead, it is difficult to forecast a trend for the September 2020 quarter.
Graph above showing tracking of GMP by quarter over the past 3 years
Graph above showing GMP comparisons for the June quarter, month by month, over the past 3 years.
Gambling harm awareness week
Gambling harm awareness week will be from 1 – 6 September this year.
The Health Promotion Agency (HPA) recognises that it has been a difficult year, and this may have impact on how people gamble. Free local, confidential, and professional counselling sessions are available.
More information can be found on the choice not chance event page.
Choice not chance – gambling harm awareness week
COVID-related updates for regulated parties
Over the past month, the Department has sent you information about fees, and applying relief measures.
If you’ve missed these updates, you can find all the information on our website.
We will continue to update the website as the situation evolves.