Are New Online Casinos Still Entering the NZ Market?
New Zealand is about to go through a seismic shift in its online gambling market. Offshore online casinos have supplied pokies and other games to NZ players for years and the market is estimated to be worth more than a NZ$1 billion annually – but that situation is soon about to change. In early 2025, the NZ Government signed the Online Casino Gambling Act. Now it is coming into effect. From July 3, offshore gambling operators will have until January 2027 to either apply for a license in the soon to be regulated open market – or stop serving NZ players.
But in the meantime, you might be confused about new casinos in the country. Because if you look online you’ll find lots of “new” casinos in the country, even though the market is changing completely in a few months. Surely no operators would launch with potentially just months of time to get customers before the market changes to a different model?
New Offshore Casinos and NZ Players
Well, the answer is these casinos allow and market to Kiwi players – for now – but most of them probably won’t be applying for a license in the new market.
The confusion comes down to the fact these offshore sites are new to the international market, which for now includes New Zealand. They will also often have unique promos for Kiwi players and other localized features. However, they aren’t specifically local NZ casinos from the ground up.
Nevertheless operators won’t want to lose out on any potential market share for now, and it remains a competitive scene.
For example if you look at something like a list of new online casinos NZ players can visit now by Casino Guru, you’ll find a lot of options that are new to the market in recent times. Players use these sites to differentiate between casinos, especially new ones. They use the information on a variety of factors including bonuses, payment speeds and game selections to make informed choices.
This competitive niche will not disappear when online casinos move to a licensed and regulated market. Comparison sites will simply switch over to covering the up to 15 newly regulated and licensed casinos as players get to grips with the new offerings.
Interestingly, some of those licensed sites won’t be entirely new to Kiwi casino fans. In many countries with so-called “grey area” offshore systems, operators in this space were not received kindly by new regulators when it came to applying for a license.
Because the NZ government has largely tolerated offshore casinos for decades, it has been open to previously offshore suppliers working with them to become licensed.
For example, SkyCity Entertainment – the Auckland-based brick & mortar casino operator – has been running an online casino licensed in Malta and serving Kiwi players since 2020. The Government recently confirmed it is fine for SkyCity to apply for a license in the newly regulated market.
What This Means for New Casinos and Operators
In the long term though, this new regulated market shift is likely to actually limit the number of new casinos NZ fans can choose from. The Government has capped the number of licenses at 15, and any operators continuing to serve Kiwi players without one will be made illegal.
Therefore, after a bump in the number of new casinos, NZ’s players will be cut off from the old offshore market and its vast number of new casinos launching all the time.
While there might not be new sites launching all the time, the idea is casino fans will be get a more standardized, safe and regulated service in exchange. Benefits of a locally regulated market as put by proponents include:
- Tax dollars for the Government
- Local legal recourse in case of a dispute
- Mandatory responsible gambling tools
- Government oversight of games and payment systems
The amount of gambling activity that moves from offshore sites to locally regulated and licensed operators after a market launch is known in the business as channelisation rate.
Globally, the best example of this in recent years is Ontario, Canada. The province opened its online gambling market to licensed international operators in 2022, and now in 2026 91% of gambling activity has moved over to the new system. Since doing so, the Ontario government has also collected billions of dollars in revenu sharing money.
New Zealand’s government will be hoping for similar success moving customers to new sites when its market opens in 2027.
So in answer to the opening question, new casinos are very much entering the New Zealand market. For now, new offshore casinos serving international players – including Kiwis – are still opening up regularly. But from 2027 that will all be changing, as many of those casinos become illegal and a selection of new (although potentially not all) operators become licensed and start a new era in the market.
Estimates project these newly-licensed operations will bring in some $850 million to $1 billion in revenues in the first year, from which they will pay around $170 million to $200 million in taxes. Next year, the global gambling sector’s eyes will all be on New Zealand to see if those predictions play out.