The TAB, the mainstay name in New Zealand betting, had put forward NZD 150 million ($87.3 million) for an online license. However, the company’s ambitions were quashed by Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden who said that this wouldn’t happen on her watch.
New Zealand Seeks to Regulate Gaming
The New Zealand government is currently in the process of selecting the operators that will acquire its planned 15 online casino licenses. The country is steadily preparing for the launch of regulated online gambling, which would revolutionize its gaming sector.
Regulated gaming would make it so that only licensed offshore companies can offer gaming legally. For comparison, New Zealanders are currently allowed to freely gamble on unregulated platforms.
As the launch of New Zealand’s regulated market draws near, however, local operators fear that foreign companies with more experience will steal all the spotlight.
Val Velden Rejects TAB’s Request
As a result, the TAB had proposed some $87.3 million for a 10-year license. The issue, however, is that the operator, as a statutory entity, cannot offer online gaming.
The TAB had contacted ministers, requesting legal changes that would have allowed it to hold a license. The company argued that the viability of its business would otherwise be jeopardized by the coming of foreign online operators.
Radio New Zealand (RNZ), however, reported that val Velden squarely rejected this deal, saying that it would never happen on her watch. She firmly said that she doesn’t believe that governments should be involved in gambling.
I don’t believe that the government should be involved in casino gambling. I look at the government trying to address the core services that people need in their lives and providing an online service for casino games is not what I think the government should be involved in.
Brooke van Velden
TAB Sought to Extend Its Monopoly to iGaming
The TAB’s original plan was to champion an iGaming monopoly system where only one or two providers would have been able to run online casinos. The company argued that this would prevent huge amounts of money from being lost to foreign companies.
Racing Minister Winston Peters told RNZ that he doesn’t plan to change the law to allow the TAB to run an online casino.
An Internal Affairs briefing to Peters noted that when TAB NZ’s land-based monopoly was established, it was still a non-profit entity that distributed its proceeds to the sports and racing sectors. However, it has since formed a partnership with the foreign operator Entain, splitting the profits 50-50.
Providing an iGaming monopoly to the TAB could therefore be perceived as providing a monopoly to an international commercial operator and sending the profits offshore.
