New Zealand spends $2.38b on gambling

NEW Zealanders spent $2.4 billion on gambling last year — about $648 for every person in the country.

That was $49 million higher than the previous year, but once inflation and population growth was taken into account, it was a slight decrease on the previous financial year.

It continues a trend of falling expenditure on gambling in this country, though problem gambling groups say the levels of harm related to gambling have remained the same for more than a decade.

The Department of Internal Affairs, releasing the figures yesterday, said the largest share of spending went into noncasino gaming machines, also known as pokies.

In total, $895 million was spent on pokies. The machines are mostly closely linked with gambling harm and officials focus most of their harm reductions efforts of them.

Despite those efforts, the total spend on pokies was only slightly down in the last year — from about $242 per person to $238 per person.

Nearly $580 million was spent in the country’s six casinos, four of which had record years. And $350 million was spent on sports and racing betting, which had the most growth out of any part of the industry. Internal Affairs said this was because of successful marketing campaigns around the Football World Cup and other events, and growth in online betting.

Prof Max Abbott, director of AUT’s Gambling and Addictions Research Centre, said the amount of money being gambled by New Zealanders had fallen by about 20% in 15 years. Yet over that time, the

levels of gamblingrelated harm had remained steady.

This was because a large number of problem gamblers relapsed, Prof Abbott said. Half to twothirds of current problem gamblers were people who had broken their habit before slipping back into it.

Problem gambling was also partly driven by migrants from countries like China or the Pacific Islands, who had not been exposed to gambling in the past and were more vulnerable to addiction. — NZME