New Zealand is an island state in Polynesia. Gambling is legal under New Zealand law. The annual turnover in the industry is over 2,000,000,000 NZD. There are 4 land-based gambling houses and one bingo hall in the country. Online casinos in New Zealand cannot operate legally, but players have free access to foreign sites. Such resources are not blocked and there are no penalties for their use.
Online Casinos in New Zealand
According to the current law, the organization of the activities of sites that provide the opportunity to gamble on a remote basis is prohibited. This does not mean a total ban on online casinos in New Zealand. The authorities do not in any way restrict players’ access to foreign sites. The most popular gambling resource among New Zealand players is 365bet.com. The international bookmaker receives approximately 20% of all traffic in this thematic segment. In second place is the national lottery Mylotto.co.nz, and in third place is the Tab.co.nz sweepstakes. So, everyone can find the necessary site to play real money pokies in New Zealand.
Poker fans from New Zealand are most likely to play at Pokerstars.com, and the most popular resource for bingo fans is Bingocabin.com.
Popular slot machines
New Zealanders, as a very gambling nation, naturally, could not miss online pokies with real money. Gambling websites and platforms started operating in 1994. Microgaming becomes the first online slots provider in New Zealand.
Fruit Fiesta and Cash Splash are some of the first slot machines available to New Zealanders. In the late nineties, New Zealanders became familiar with slots from Playtech and Cryptologic.
At first, online slots only had 1 pay line and 3 reels. Then, with the development of computers, developers began to introduce more pay lines, wild symbols, scatters, bonuses, and bonus games. Video slots are one of the most popular types of gambling in the country. In New Zealand, they received the slang name “pokies”. The following online pokies for real money are especially popular among New Zealand gamblers:
- Gonzo’s Quest;
- Batman;
- The Wizard of Oz;
- Medusa II.
Well-known gambling software manufacturers do not operate in New Zealand. The most demanded foreign developer in the country is Playtech, which creates the best online pokies real money.
All slot machines since 2009 are necessarily equipped with an information button that shows how much money and time the player has spent on this machine. This motivates people to play responsibly and take breaks after long sessions.
Also, all slot machines are equipped with EMS – Electronic Monitoring System, an electronic monitoring system. It tracks the data of all slot machines in the country. The information is sent to the central monitoring server, where statistics are summarized: how much money was spent on a particular slot machine, how much it gave to the player, what income from it, etc.
The return to the player percentage from a slot machine outside the casino should be 78-92%. Governmental regulators are in charge of such limits.
Areas with the highest density of pokies for real money per capita:
- Kaikoura;
- Thames-Coromandel;
- Mackenzie District;
- Waitomo;
- Gray District;
- South Huerarapa;
- Baller.
Prospects for the development of the gambling business in New Zealand
The gambling market in New Zealand is formed and stable. Due to the restrictions on the issuance of new licenses, it is not yet possible to talk about a possible revival in the land gambling segment. The licensed operators are fully responsive to the current needs of New Zealand players. The authorities are making attempts to streamline the activities of online casinos. In particular, for foreign bookmakers, it is planned to introduce a tax at the rate of 2% on the profits received from New Zealand players.
New Zealand is characterized by a well-developed gambling legislative framework that is friendly to players and takes into account their interests as much as possible. A reasonable compromise has been found in the country between the fight against gambling addiction and the creation of comfortable conditions for gamblers.