Problems in New Zealand

A recent study has revealed that the country of New Zealand has lost millions of dollars all because of online casino operators that run their online casinos from overseas. The study was conducted by a Racing Board and the study retrieved data which showed about 200,000 players from New Zealand playing at online casinos and internet gambling sites that are located outside of their country. This scenario does sound familiar in a way. The United States had this issue a couple of years ago when they had legal online casino play available. What happened was that the foreign companies were receiving the money that the US residents were spending gambling, money that the government wanted to keep inside the country. That is not the only reason why online casino players were told not to engage in internet gambling from online casinos that operate over seas.

Players are not protected in the same way as they would be if the online casino was in their home country. In New Zealand, the residents who are playing in the online casinos that are based outside of the country may not be aware that they are not being looked after should they get into some trouble with that particular internet gambling website. What is happening in New Zealand is that 177,000 people from the country are gambling at outside based online casinos. That is not to say that all of those online casinos are bad, but that is a huge number of people who are playing outside of their country. Those gamblers have been reported to spending $2.1 billion on these online casinos.

The head of the Problem Gambling Foundation, David Coom said of these online casino issues: "We are starting to see cases come through where parents are bringing in their teenagers who are spending up to sixty hours a week online. We are just about to embark on some research with youth to see what actually is going on." This study has sparked a lot of debate on the issues of online casinos. The spokesperson for Racing Board, Bill Colgan said, “Many of these offshore operators are not required and do not have in place any proactive measures to minimize the harm from problem gambling." Adding online casinos inside the country would create jobs and much needed tax revenue, which is exactly what the US Representative Barney Frank is trying to say about online casinos in the United States. One thing is for sure, this debate will wage on for years to come.