NZ wants action on Aussie betting law
We are going to work hard now to find solutions because we don’t believe we are the intended targets for this
legislation
THE snail’s pace at which key changes to New Zealand’s Racing Act have moved could result in financial losses following changes to gambling laws across the Tasman.
Earlier this week, the Australian Interactive Gambling Amendment Act became law — after it went through Parliament at lightning pace — and made placing bets through an overseas betting agency, while in Australia, illegal.
The legislation was introduced to crack down on rogue offshore agencies, which do not make returns to racing authorities for the privilege of offering bets on racing and sports in Australia.
The new laws have stopped the New Zealand TAB from doing business with Australian punters, despite it having close ties with Australian betting agencies.
As of this week, no computer with an Australian IP address can even open the New Zealand TAB’s website, let alone let someone bet on it.
According to New Zealand Racing Board (NZRB) chief executive John Allen, said about 800 Australians had accounts to bet with the New Zealand TAB.
Allen estimates that gross revenue from all betting with the TAB from within Australia, which primarily comes from that group of 800 account holders, to be $1 million.
Had the Racing Act amendments been finalised, rather than sitting dormant waiting for the next parliamentary term and possibly a new government, some of the leakage of that $1 million from NZRB’s coffers could have been stopped.
Should those 800 TAB account holders bet on New Zealand racing and sports with an Australian agency, there is a big chance they will do so with one that does not pay the NZRB for the privilege of taking bets on those products.
Currently the TAB has agreements to collect such fees from the likes of TABCorp and TattsBet, but not with a plethora of other betting operators in Australia.
Had the the Racing Act amendments been finalised then all of Australia’s betting operators would have been bound to pay those fees, but right now, the NZRB must watch on as their customers bet elsewhere.
‘‘While losing any customers is undesirable, the profit lost from Australians betting through the New Zealand TAB is a relatively small amount in terms of total betting revenue,’’ Allen said.
The TAB had gross betting revenue of $342 million in its last financial year from a total turnover of more than $2.2 billion.
Those figures show bets made in Australia total less that 0.3% of the TAB’s betting revenue, a loss that Allen says is not disastrous.
However, rather than waiting for Parliament to patch up the Racing Act to get some of that money back, Allen and his team are quickly moving to apply for a licence which the new Australian laws allow.
‘‘We are going to work hard now to find solutions because we don’t believe we are the intended targets for this legislation.’’
The process to get that licence and the cost, which could be a crucial factor in whether it was viable, was something the NZRB would investigate quickly, Allen said.