New Zealanders deposited an estimated NZ$1.36 billion with offshore online gambling operators, according to a Department of Internal Affairs-commissioned analysis of transactions spanning October 2023 to September 2025.
It’s the clearest data-led picture of the market that this week’s newly-opened license framework is designed to disrupt – and bring onshore – and the research, carried out by an analytics firm called DOT Loves Data shows that the market continues to grow in both size – and concentration – ahead of the impending regulation.
The headline data is pretty hard to dispute. The research revealed that total offshore spending rose 10.5% year on year, driven almost entirely by casino products. Online casino spending increased 38%, while offshore sports betting, interestingly, fell 37% over the same period.
The data revealed that around 360,000 unique New Zealand customers were making transactions with offshore operators as of September 2025, which was up 2.7%, while transaction volumes were up by 9%. Also interesting is that the money appears to be flowing to a pretty concentrated group of companies, most of which are based in Cyprus, Gibraltar, Great Britain, and Malta. Together, these countries accounted for more than 96% of total spending, and just 15 operators controlled over 80% of the market.
This also happens to be the first time the DIA has given real government-led data-based market insights to prospective licensees, as casino operators weigh up whether to submit an expression of interest, which closes on the 14th of August 2026.
What makes alarm bells ring in regulator’s minds is the distribution of that spending. The DIA data shows that communities in the most deprived 40%of New Zealand’s deprivation index accounted for more than half of all offshore gambling spend, and on the other end of the scale, the wealthiest 20% contributed under 15%.
Casino spending among the highest-deprivation groups increased by 41%, too, which was the fastest growth of any group – and it’s these figures that help to explain why harm minimalisation is so important for regulators as part of the incoming licensing regime.
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Alex Smith