3 September 2019
It's Gambling Harm Awareness Week
Gambling Harm Awareness Week is an annual initiative designed to raise awareness of gambling harm in New Zealand and provide positive ways for people to help those they are concerned about.
It takes place this week from 2 - 8 September.
There are a number of ways you can get involved and there are resources available that venues, societies and clubs can access.
Take Time Out from Gambling - Put Time into Whanau – HPA Online Toolkit
Gambling Harm Awareness Week is an opportunity to focus on reducing harm
All participants in the New Zealand gambling system have a role in minimising gambling harm.
Lisa Docherty, Director Gambling Regulatory System says,“As regulator our role is to ensure that gambling operators have policies in place to minimise harm to patrons, and that they apply these policies effectively,”
A significant majority of adult New Zealanders (over three quarters) gamble at least once a year. Last year, Kiwis spent more than $2.3 billion dollars on the four primary forms of gambling – racing and sports betting, Lotto NZ products, casino and pokie machine gambling.
Minimising Gambling Harm Campaign - South Auckland
In June the Health Promotion Agency [HPA] launched a pilot campaign targeted at Māori and Pasifika gamblers who experience the harms of problem gambling in the South Auckland region.
The campaign came off the back of research that showed that Māori and Pasifika gamblers identified that they did not know that free, local and confidential help was available.This is useful hosting responsibilities information for venue operators and their staff.
The call-to-action for the campaign was to text "Auck" to 8006.
HPA is currently evaluating the campaign to see how it tracked. The results from this will determine phase two of the campaign.
You can contact HPA - Micaela Stewart at m.stewart@hpa.org.nz for posters or more information around the pilot.
Did you know?
FREE Gamble Host Resources for venues
All Gamble Host resources for venues are available on the HPA Shop. This is a very simple online ordering system that allows you to view all resources on offer, select which items you’d like and have them sent out to you for free.
Online Gambling - Have your say
Recently, Hon Minister Tracey Martin released a public discussion document about Online Gambling in New Zealand.
The Minister is keen to hear what New Zealanders think should be done about online gambling, including overseas online gambling sites.
Since the Gambling Act was passed in 2003, new technology has influenced and changed our behaviour, including how we gamble. Some countries have chosen to licence offshore gambling operators. The discussion document offers some options for the New Zealand context. Are there other approaches that might be better?
Submissions close 30 September 2019.
Gambits Survey - what you've said
Thank you to those who participated in our short 2-minute survey on Gambits. We had 79 respondents with the majority from clubs, venues and societies.
Generally, respondents were positive and you also provided some useful feedback, You told us you want more regulatory information coupled with some general info and stories about what's happening in the gambling sector with visuals and data information that is print-friendly.
We are looking forward to working on striking a good balance for our readers in coming issues.
Changes and Reminders
Reminder to venues - keep your EMS Site Controller keys onsite
In accordance with the Gaming Rules, Venues are meant to keep the Site Controller cabinet keys onsite at all times.
This does impact our ability as regulator to restore communications to Site Controllers in a timely manner when a reset is required and is causing unnecessary delays in the restoration of communications.
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