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In October, Internal Affairs Minister Peter Dunne announced a number of decisions affecting the sector, including the Government’s decisions on gambling fee changes. The Gambling (Fees) Regulations 2015 have now been gazetted and these changes will come into effect on 1 February 2016.

While there are a number of changes, not all are changing. See the full list of current and new gambling fees. Please note that the new fees regulations are GST-exclusive.

In advance of the changes, we will have two versions of any form for any process that has a changing fee available on our website:

1. For applications received before 1 February 2016 there will be a version with the current GST-inclusive fee.
    
2. For applications received on or after 1 February 2016 there will be a version with the new GST-inclusive fee.

We are here to assist you and have included some important information below. However, please feel free to contact us if you have any questions relating to these new gambling fees.

New Class 4 licence applications

For new Class 4 licence applications, the application fee (Class 4 operator or venue licence fee) is to be paid at the time of application, while the annual fees (operator’s annual fee and annual compliance fee) are only payable once the decision to grant the licence has been made.

This chart demonstrates how these fees for new Class 4 licence applications will apply.

Class 4 licence renewals

For Class 4 licence renewals both the application fee (Class 4 operator’s or venue licence fee) and annual fees (operator’s annual fee and annual compliance fee) are paid at the time the application is made. This means that any Class 4 licence renewal application received on or after 1 February 2016 will have all fees paid at the new rate.

Casino operator fees

The new quarterly rate for Casino operator fees will change for the 20 April 2016 invoice.

EMS monitoring fees

EMS monitoring fees (daily monitoring fee) for February will be charged at the new rate. These will be invoiced in early March 2016.

Ongoing annual increases

The annual compliance fees (per gaming machine) will increase on 1 July each year. When a society annually renews its licence they will be charged:

• at the current year’s rate for the months before the next 30 June; and
   
• at the next year’s rate for the months the licence is valid after 1 July.

Annual compliance fee for small clubs

There has been a change to the structure of the annual compliance fees. Small clubs will now pay a lower fee than large clubs and non-clubs.  A small club is defined as a Category A Class 4 Operator that operates only out of Category A venues and operates no more than seven gaming machines in total.