Peter Dengate Thrush: Gaming Machine Association Independent Chair on the Government's crackdown on online gambling companies

A gaming machine lobby group is pleased about a government move to bring online operators into line. 

The Government's announced it's starting a licensing program, which will see 15 licences given and an up to $5 million fine for anyone operating online without one. 

Gaming Machine Association Independent Chair Peter Dengate Thrush told Mike Hosking internet casinos threaten the current gambling model, which works well for them. 

He says New Zealand has low problem gambling rates and puts millions of dollars back into the community, as per government regulation. 

Despite being pleased about the crackdown, the group does believe the Government should be doing more, and online casinos should face the same rules as other operators. 

Dengate Thrush says the law doesn’t address any of the major problems, not does it require online companies to invest into the community. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We've got to crack down on rogue online gaming operators.
The unlicensed could soon be fined five million dollars. New
laws are on the way, so are we heading in
the right direction? The independent chair of the Gaming Machine Association,
Peter Dingate thrushes, well, there's Peter, good morning.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Good morning.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
Do you honestly believe anybody, anywhere ever, is going to
be fined five million dollars?

Speaker 2 (00:20):
I think that's a bit of a newspaper height. But
what is good about this is that we are starting
to see some movement, some regulation of this space, which
we've been calling for for long. And we've been opposed
to unregulated online gambling because of the damage that it
does to the current system. You know, the current system
has one of the lowest problem gambling rates in the world,
and we put a third of a billion dollars back
into the community for community projects, and this has the

(00:43):
capacity to damage there.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
Can you regulate? Can you regulate online gambling if it's
coming out of Azerbaijan.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
Well, it depends on familion. It's difficult to actually go
to Azevaijan and prosecute someone, so that's difficult. But if
you can make the license attractive enough so that they
want to keep it. Then you can probably work some
control by controlling that licensing. But it's the bit tenous.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
Yeah, what I'm asking really is is it realistic. It's
one thing to say, hey, we're going to do this,
can you actually because I mean the Australian government of
you following it trying to ban kids on social media,
social media, online gambling, it's all global. How do you
control something from the bottom of the world.

Speaker 2 (01:20):
There's a lot of evidence that children are being very
badly damaged by access to online media. So I think
we need a bit of work done in that area.
But maybe that's the way to go. But just come
back to this regulation, Mike. There's what's wrong with this
is that it doesn't actually address some of some of
the major problems. It's based on some misunderstood economics. I
don't know whether you've read the cabinet paper, but we

(01:43):
currently pay one hundred and sixty million dollars a year,
for example, to operate us to the pubs. There's going
to be no commission paid to anybody that's taken out
of the system. So there's a hot of jobs possibly
at stake. The biggest part is probably there's no requirement
to pay any money to the community. And Section three
of our Gambling Acts say is that part of the

(02:04):
purpose of the act is that money from gambling should
benefit the community. So they're getting this ignores one of
the major planks, if you like, of the current system.
And as I say, the current system zero point two
percent of the population of problem gamblers. We've got one
of the lowest rates of organized crime associated with gambling
in New Zealand. You know, these things just don't work well.

Speaker 1 (02:24):
When you say point two percent of the population. I
had it at point four, but I'll take your number
at point two. It's next to no one.

Speaker 2 (02:30):
Why are we exercised, Well, you know that's part of
the problem. We want to get it down even low.
But like those the Swede you mentioned with the smoking.
But one of the good things about this regulation is
that they are going to pay money into the problem
gambling levy. That's the money that goes to the Health Department,
which then runs the various schemes for protecting people who

(02:52):
are risk on this. But you know, the current system
has a great deal of onerous host responsibilities on people
who provide gambling and it's very difficult to see how
the scheme is going to enforce anything like that. And
then you came back to the problem that you raise,
and how do you track someone down on azerbad Jar
and make them behave.

Speaker 1 (03:09):
Exactly Peter appreciate it very much. Peter Dingate thrush into Mind,
a chair of the Gaming Machine Association of New Zealand.

Speaker 2 (03:15):
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