websites this enables the company to circumnavigate the laws and provide online gaming to residents. It also means operators are not subjected to NZ laws, regulations, or taxes although they cannot advertise in the country.
Te SkyCity online venture operates out of Malta by international igaming company Gaming Innovation Group on behalf of SkyCity Malta. In April last year SkyCity expanded its partnership with GiG and subscribed for around $40m of new equity in GiG to help fund the company’s purchase of Sportnco Gaming, a European based business-to-business online sports and player account management provider. SkyCity now holds an 11 per cent shareholding in GiG.
Te online sector saw $16.9m in revenues for SkyCity for FY2022 compared to $13.1m the year previously. Tere were some 51,000 customer registrations last year (up 4.2 per cent on 2021) and $1.03bn in total bets taken.
Meanwhile Christchurch is also planning to open an online casino via
christchurchcasino.com. Te company will also be run out of Malta and the site was due to be live by end of 2022.
Tere is some contention over online casinos and problem gambling association, Problem Gambling Foundation Services, has its concerns with the Christchurch operation saying the
P96 WIRE / PULSE / INSIGHT / REPORTS
The SkyCity online venture operates out of Malta by international igaming company Gaming
Innovation Group on behalf of SkyCity Malta. In April last year SkyCity expanded its partnership with GiG and subscribed for around $40m of new equity in GiG to help fund the company’s purchase of Sportnco Gaming.
“unregulated site” will target New Zealanders as many associate the casino as a licensed site.
Te DIA initiated an online gambling review back in 2019 to look at developing a ‘safe, regulated online gambling system for New Zealand’ which stalled due to the pandemic.
Te review was to build a picture of New Zealander’s views and experiences of online gambling and sought feedback on what a future gambling market could look like, how it could be restricted and what harm minimisation
measures could be put in place. It attracted almost 3,000 submissions between August and September 2019.
Te Minister of Internal Affairs was due to take a paper back to cabinet regarding the review at the end of 2022 although a conclusion is still pending. It is possible the review could now be part of a complete review of the Gambling Act to update the sector for 2023 and beyond.
It is estimated that New Zealanders gambled up to $350m last year on some 3,000 unregulated overseas websites with about $180m of that going to online casinos. Tis is anticipated to hit $600m in online spending by 2025.
Te Super Group is said to have the biggest market share with an estimated $136m in revenue followed by Flutter, SkyCity and Bet365. Regulating the online sector could bring in as much as $1bn in taxes for the country in addition to safer gambling levies, jobs, and community contributions.
Te document outlined four main options including:
1. Maintaining the status quo - Lotto and TAB would continue to be the only providers of online gambling products in New Zealand with a limited product range.
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