Gambling has always been a popular activity in every single corner of the world. No matter which country you go to, you will find places where you can bet and Gamble, whether it is legal or not. Gambling is definitely a very popular activity in New Zealand, and that is why a lot of prohibitive laws have been feeling to work. While the casinos, race tracks, lotteries, pokies and more have enjoyed a lot of success, the popularity of gambling has grown significantly since the introduction of online casinos, and this is something that we should keep in mind. Gambling was always popular in New Zealand, but it hit a new stride, a bigger stride when online casinos were introduced. The gambling expenditure was a little over $2 billion back in the year 2015, and this figure does not even account for the money that is spent on online casinos.
The $2 billion only factors into the amount of money that is spent in betting, gambling in casinos, lotteries and more.
The first-ever recorded lottery in New Zealand actually dates back to the 19th century. With the recognition of the declining interest in the Art Union lotteries of the time, and also the fact that people were illegally purchasing some lottery tickets from Australia, the national government went ahead and founded the Golden Kiwi lottery back in the year 1961.
This runs very successfully until the year 1987, when the New Zealand lottery commission was founded. The initial release from this lottery commission was lotto, but in the following years, they made products like scratch cards, Powerball and even keno.
Horse racing has also been very prevalent in New Zealand. It continues to happen legally in the country. People have been betting on horse races since the year 1910.
Online casinos have changed the way gambling takes place in the country of New Zealand. It is illegal to operate an online casino in the country, but New Zealanders who are of legal age can actually gamble with the casinos that are based overseas. That would mean that New Zealanders can gamble in online casinos that are based in other countries like the United States of America, United Kingdom and more.
Under the New Zealand law, all kinds of gambling activities are controlled by the Department of internal affairs. All gambling has to return a percentage of the proceeds into the community. Since there are absolutely no legal online casinos that are operating in New Zealand, they would be the exception to this particular rule.
There have actually been a lot of laws that have prohibited or even allowed many different kinds of gambling activities throughout the history of New Zealand.