Despite pandemic-related restrictions, closures and job losses, New Zealanders are spending more than ever on gambling, at least this is what the most recent statistics show.
In 2020, the rawest year of the covid-19 pandemic, New Zealand gamblers broke spending records. Between lottery, poker machines, casinos and online gambling, each adult New Zealander spent, on average, almost $600 in 2020.
Admittedly, annual gambling profits fell by almost $130 million, but there is an explanation for this phenomenon. The global disease paralyzed a large part of the activity of pubs, clubs and casinos.
In New Zealand, for example, 40% of the revenue from poker machines is distributed in the form of subsidies. In this way, the increase in spending and gambling is a vital boost for New Zealand’s communities.
Thus, four out of every ten dollars from a gaming activity goes to develop sport, culture and the arts across the country, especially in the communities that need the most investment and are least able to get it.
However, critics of this 40% system see it from a different angle. They claim that most New Zealand gamblers are poor people. Thus, they say, 40% of the revenue does not actually go to communities, but it is 60% that escapes, through gambling, from the most vulnerable communities to feed the gambling industry.
The pandemic triggered the use of online gambling platforms. On the Internet it is very common to find reviews and comparisons with specific titles such as the best online blackjack sites in New Zealand, poker sites, the most attractive slots… The gambling industry wants to take advantage of the boom of 2020 and replicate it in 2021. And it seems that it will succeed. Fears about the pandemic in faraway New Zealand have somewhat dissipated, but the desire to play and win money has not.
Concerns about the gambling boom
Every day more and more sectors of New Zealand’s population spend their money on gambling. They range from buying a lottery ticket, betting on race days or frequenting online casinos from their internet-connected devices.
This growing interest has generated concern in certain sectors that see in these activities a danger of increasing addictions, addictions that cause problems to health and that could be more than just a family affair.
Online casino games generate addiction, despite the obligation and calls for individual and corporate responsibility. When there is not enough mental fortitude to “stop in time” gambling can generate health problems, emotional distress, anxiety, poor performance at work or study, economic damage and, in some cases, increased crime in general.
