New Zealand Gaming License

What is a New Zealand online casino gambling license?

The Department of Internal Affairs grants a New Zealand online casino gambling license under the Online Casino Gambling Act 2026. A gambling license in New Zealand permits an operator to offer online casino gambling to players in the country. One license covers one brand and its player-facing platforms. No online casino gambling was licensed in New Zealand before this regime.

Three features of the instrument decide how a group structures itself around it.

• One license, one brand. A separate expression of interest was required for each brand, and a bidder could bid on one license per accepted expression of interest.

• Three licenses per person. A person has significant influence over a license in any of three cases.

• That person is the license holder.

• That person can directly or indirectly exercise or control 20% or more of the voting power at meetings of the license holder.

• That person directly or indirectly owns or controls 20% or more of the securities in the license holder.

The Secretary must not grant a license where doing so would give any person significant influence over more than three licenses.

• Extraterritorial reach. A license is required to enable a person in New Zealand to participate in online casino gambling, whatever jurisdiction the operator is incorporated in.

Scope is narrow by design. Online casino gambling covers random number generator games, casino table games and bets on computer-simulated sporting events. Online sports and race betting sits outside this regime, and so does the lottery.

Who regulates online gambling in New Zealand?

The Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) regulates online casino gambling in New Zealand, and license decisions are made by the Secretary for Internal Affairs. The DIA also supervises licensees under the AML/CFT Act 2009. Inland Revenue administers the online gambling duty.

Two statutes run in parallel and are easy to confuse. The land-based gambling sector is regulated under the Gambling Act 2003, which is also where the problem gambling levy sits. Online casino gambling is regulated under the separate Online Casino Gambling Act 2026, with its detail in the Online Casino Gambling Regulations 2026 and in the Online Casino Gambling (Minimum Standards) 2026.

Licensing, the auction rules and enforcement all sit with the DIA. The DIA's enforcement powers include takedown notices and applications for pecuniary penalties. Inland Revenue collects the duty; the DIA collects its own licensing levy.

How does the New Zealand licensing process work?

The Department of Internal Affairs allocates New Zealand online casino licenses in three stages: an expression of interest, an auction, then a full application. Winning the auction does not grant a license. What the auction sells is the right to apply, and the Secretary for Internal Affairs still has to be satisfied of suitability.

Published summaries written during the consultation period describe a two-stage process. That picture is out of date. The Act and the DIA both set out three stages, and the middle one is the reason the entry price is not a published number.

Stage 1. Expression of interest (EOI)

Stage 1 opened by public notice from the Secretary for Internal Affairs in the New Zealand Gazette on 16 July 2026. Submissions ran through the Government Electronic Tender Service (GETS).

• A separate expression of interest was required for each brand, each carrying a fee of NZ$19,000 excluding GST under regulation 46 of the Online Casino Gambling Regulations 2026.

• Submissions disclosed the ownership structure, every person who would have significant influence over a license, the brand and platform, and the source and amount of capital.

• The DIA assessed four things at this stage: whether the submission was complete, access to the required capital, relevant criminal convictions for key individuals, and any risk to New Zealand's international reputation.

• Presence in New Zealand and intended community contributions were collected here but not assessed here. Both are weighed later, at the license application stage.

• The window ran from 17 July to 14 August 2026.

Stage 2. Auction

Stage 2 is open only to operators whose expression of interest was accepted, and it is expected in September 2026.

• The format is an ascending clock auction. The price rises in steps, and at each step every participant is offered the same price and chooses to stay in or withdraw.

• Bidding runs in multiple rounds as sealed bids through the GETS portal.

• The winning price is uniform, so every successful bidder pays the same amount rather than the amount it bid.

• Up to 15 licenses are available and, depending on the outcome, not all 15 may be sold.

• Descriptions of the auction as an award to the highest bid are a simplification. Price discovery is the mechanism, and the uniform clearing price is what an entry model has to carry.

Stage 3. Licence application

Auction winners are invited to file a full application, expected from October 2026, and the auction-determined amount is payable before that application is assessed.

• The application carries a business plan and four strategies: advertising and marketing, consumer protection, harm prevention and minimisation, and regulatory compliance.

• Suitability under section 19(2) takes account of any presence the applicant or its key officers have in New Zealand, disclosed under section 14(c). Intended contributions to community purposes, disclosed under section 14(d), are weighed at the same stage.

• Suitability is assessed on the applicant's own merits. The DIA does not compare applicants against each other.

• Where an application is declined, the full amount paid is refunded. Where it is withdrawn before assessment is complete, the Secretary may retain part of that amount to cover the cost of administering the process.

• A declined bidder must exit the market, and the license returns to the pool for future allocation.

How much does a New Zealand gaming license cost?

New Zealand gaming license cost has one published government figure and one that the market sets. The expression of interest fee is NZ$19,000 excluding GST per brand and is non-refundable. The auction sets the license price, so no all-in entry cost can be quoted before the auction concludes.

One-off entry costs

Capital and fee settings sit in the Online Casino Gambling Regulations 2026 and in the current DIA notice. Both are set by secondary legislation and can change, so confirm the figures against the notice in force on the day of filing.

Ongoing duties and levies for New Zealand licensees

Four charges run against a New Zealand licensee, and only two of them have a published rate for online casino gambling.

The duty base repays a careful read. New Zealand does not levy the duty on gross gambling revenue. The DIA states that the system uses the operator's online gambling profits under section 12T instead, and the deduction for offshore betting amounts is part of that formula.

Schedule 2 of the Online Casino Gambling Act 2026 amended the Gaming Duties Act 1971 in two ways. Schedule 2 renamed the offshore gambling duty as the online gambling duty, and it raised the rate from 12 percent to 16 percent. That increase commences on 1 January 2027, and Inland Revenue's published rate is 12% until then.

Licensees are also reporting entities under the AML/CFT Act 2009, supervised by the DIA. Customer due diligence, suspicious activity reporting and record keeping apply from the start of the license.

What are the requirements for a New Zealand online casino license?

A New Zealand online casino license requires a legal entity with disclosed ownership and beneficial owners. Applicants must evidence access to NZ$7.5 million of capital, and relevant criminal convictions in the last seven years for key individuals are checked at the expression of interest stage and disclosed again under section 14(i). A conviction for dishonesty in that window against the applicant, or against its chief executive, chief financial officer or chief operating officer, is the kind of finding that ends a suitability assessment rather than a point to be explained away. The Department of Internal Affairs also assesses any risk to New Zealand's international reputation.

• A legal entity, with the ownership structure disclosed and every person holding significant influence named.

• Evidence of access to at least NZ$7.5 million of capital, which may be demonstrated through bank statements, audited accounts, funding commitments or wider group support.

• Criminal and regulatory history disclosed for the applicant and its key officers, covering the last seven years.

• A separate expression of interest per brand, submitted through GETS registration.

• A platform meeting the Online Casino Gambling (Minimum Standards) 2026, which cover harm prevention, consumer protection and information security. The DIA is still developing the testing requirements to be specified under section 80(11) of the Act.

• Reporting entity status under the AML/CFT Act 2009.

• Harm prevention and minimisation, and consumer protection, written as strategies and filed with the stage 3 application. MGL builds these packs as part of gambling compliance policy development.

• An address for service in New Zealand under section 18(c). Beyond that address, a New Zealand presence is not a requirement.

• A platform live within 90 days of the license being granted, and available for at least 270 days in any 12-month period. Where that window is not achievable, the DIA has indicated the Secretary may delay issuing the license.

What are the key dates in the New Zealand licensing timeline?

New Zealand's licensing timeline has fixed statutory dates and expected administrative ones. The Online Casino Gambling Act 2026 took effect on 1 May 2026 and expressions of interest closed on 14 August 2026. The auction is expected in September 2026, and the Department of Internal Affairs does not expect the regime to be operational before 2027.

What happens to unlicensed operators after 1 December 2026?

From 1 December 2026, an operator that has not applied for a license must stop offering online casino gambling in New Zealand. An operator that applied before that date may keep operating until the Secretary for Internal Affairs decides, or until 1 June 2027, whichever comes first. Advertising stays prohibited throughout.

Transition rights are narrower than they look. Schedule 1 of the Act protects only the same person that was conducting online casino gambling on 1 May 2026 in a way that let someone in New Zealand take part. A new subsidiary formed to hold the license does not inherit the parent's transition rights. The entity that files the expression of interest, bids and applies has to be the entity that was trading.

Where an applicant has not met the requirements by 1 June 2027, the provider must cease operations and exit New Zealand. The DIA expects to have made every license decision by that date at the latest.

Penalties changed scale with the new Act. A civil liability act carries a pecuniary penalty of up to NZ$5,000,000 for a body corporate and up to NZ$300,000 for an individual. Conducting online casino gambling without a license, and publishing unlawful advertising, are both civil liability acts. The DIA can also issue takedown notices, and those notices reach anyone who publishes or arranges to publish an unlawful advertisement on a provider's behalf.

Location gives no cover. The Act applies to any operator that enables a person in New Zealand to participate in online casino gambling, wherever that operator is incorporated.

What are the advantages of a New Zealand gaming license?

Advantages of a New Zealand gaming license come from the structure of the regime rather than from cost. Only licensed operators may advertise online casino gambling in New Zealand, and the license count is capped at 15. Licensees also pay no community grant obligation on top of the duty.

• Advertising exclusivity for licensees, once it starts. All advertising of online casino gambling is prohibited today, for everyone. Only after licences are granted can a licensee advertise within the Regulations while unlicensed competitors cannot, with penalties of up to NZ$5,000,000 for unlawful advertising, and the Act's own timetable puts that in the second half of 2027 rather than now.

• A capped field. The Act allows up to 15 licenses and prohibits any person from having significant influence over more than three, which fixes the maximum number of lawful competitors.

• Three brands under one group. Because a license covers one brand and its platforms, a group at the three-license limit can run three separate brands lawfully.

• Community funding comes out of the duty, not out of a separate obligation. Licensees are not subject to the community distribution requirement that applies to class 4 gambling, and from 1 January 2027 4% of the 16% duty is ring-fenced for community funding instead. The money still leaves the business, so treat this as a simpler mechanism rather than a saving.

• A uniform auction price. Every successful bidder pays the same clearing price rather than its own bid.

• Customer migration without re-registration. An operator satisfied that it knows a customer, and that the customer is over 18, may migrate that customer into the licensed environment. The Regulations impose no requirement to re-register or re-verify.

• Supervised status. A license replaces an unregulated posture with DIA supervision and AML/CFT Act 2009 reporting, which is the standing that payment and banking partners assess.

What are the disadvantages of the New Zealand licensing regime?

Disadvantages of the New Zealand licensing regime concentrate at entry. Only 15 licenses exist and an auction sets the price, which no applicant can know in advance. The NZ$19,000 expression of interest fee is non-refundable, and a first license runs for only three years.

• A hard cap and an unpriced auction. Up to 15 licenses are available, allocated by ascending clock auction, and the clearing price is not published in advance or fixed by regulation.

• A non-refundable entry fee. NZ$19,000 excluding GST is payable on each expression of interest under regulation 46, per brand, and is not returned if the submission is withdrawn or not accepted.

• A capital threshold before any bid. Access to NZ$7.5 million must be evidenced at stage 1, before the applicant knows the auction price or whether a license follows.

• A short first term. A license runs up to three years against auction-priced entry. One renewal of up to five years is available, with the application due at least six months before expiry.

• One brand per license. A multi-brand operator needs a separate expression of interest, a separate bid and a separate license per brand, inside a limit of three per person or group.

• Launch and availability obligations. The platform has to be live within 90 days of the license being granted and available at least 270 days in any 12-month period.

• A stacked tax load. Duty at 12% and 16% from 1 January 2027, a 3.5% licensing levy, the problem gambling levy, GST at 15%, and company tax where the entity is registered in New Zealand.

• Acquisition channels closed, and not only the obvious ones. Regulation 40 prohibits an advertisement that includes sponsorship, personal endorsement or an affiliate arrangement, and regulation 40(w) prohibits any reference, image or sound relating to any other form of gambling or sports betting, which rules out cross-selling from a sportsbook. Regulation 42 requires express consent before any direct advertising communication, so there is no cold email or SMS. Regulation 39(2)(a) restricts advertising around live broadcast events, including live sport. Regulation 12(1) bars a loyalty programme from rewarding participation in other gambling, and regulation 13(2) confines inducements to online casino gambling. On the payment side regulation 18(1)(a) prohibits payment methods reasonably detectable as involving credit contracts, which the DIA reads as covering credit cards and buy now pay later. The definition excludes an arrangement paying a benefit solely for displaying a link, so the DIA says a fixed fee for a link would likely not be a prohibited affiliate arrangement. Every other advertising rule still applies to that link.

• Extraterritorial enforcement. Penalties reach NZ$5,000,000 for a body corporate and NZ$300,000 for an individual, and the operator's location is no defence.

Why choose MGL

MGL works on what is still open in New Zealand, not on a first round that has closed. Advisory covers readiness for a later round, group structuring under the three-license limit, and exit planning before 1 December 2026. MGL has obtained 300+ licences across offshore and regulated markets.

• Readiness for the next allocation. A probity and capital pack built to the four checks the DIA actually applies at expression of interest stage. The work gets done before a notice appears, rather than inside a four-week window.

• Group structuring under the significant influence test. Modelling voting power and securities across the group so that a planned stake, or an investment into a licensee, does not push any person past three licenses.

• An AML/CFT perimeter that survives supervision. Customer due diligence, reporting and record keeping scoped to reporting entity status under the AML/CFT Act 2009, with the DIA as supervisor.

• The stage 3 strategy pack. Harm prevention and minimisation, consumer protection, advertising and marketing, and compliance, written as filing documents rather than as statements of intent.

• Renewal work on a three-year clock. First licenses expected from 2027 fall due in 2030, with the application six months earlier. See our page on license renewal.

• Exit planning before 1 December 2026. Where a New Zealand license is not reachable this round, an orderly withdrawal protects the compliance record that a future application will be read against.