5 December 2025

Kia ora,

The Minister of Internal Affairs, Hon Brooke Van Velden, has announced the release of the Select Committee report to Parliament with recommended changes to the Online Casino Gambling Bill.

As part of their work to scrutinise the Bill, the Governance and Administration Committee considered the feedback from over 5000 public submissions made earlier this year. As a result, they have recommended changes to the proposed legislation. The full report can be found on the New Zealand Parliament website:

·       Online Casino Gambling Bill – final report from the Select Committee

·       Online Casino Gambling Bill tracker

The proposed legislation will now continue to progress through New Zealand's Parliament.

Impact on implementation

The recommendations in the Select Committee report include changes to the timeline for how the legislation would be implemented.

Key dates:

• 1 May 2026: Commencement of the legislation. This includes a total prohibition on advertising online casino gambling. Providers already offering online casino gambling in New Zealand may continue their existing operations until 1 December.
• 1 December 2026: Prohibition on offering online casino gambling in New Zealand begins. Only those providers who have applied for a licence can continue to operate. All others must exit the market. Once licensed, operators will be able to advertise under strict rules.
• 1 June 2027: Only operators who hold a licence may operate.

The Online Gambling Implementation team (OGI) are now working through what this new proposed timeframe would mean for implementation. We’ll be in touch with another update later this month.

Ngā mihi nui,
Trina Lowry
Programme Director - Online Gambling Implementation