Last reviewed 7 July 2026 - figures are the latest published official data
The headline numbers
New Zealanders lost a total of $2.79 billion to the country's four officially tracked forms of gambling in 2023/24 - with pub and club pokies taking in $1,037 million - per the DIA's expenditure statistics. The number does not include losses by New Zealanders to overseas online casinos, at an estimated $700-800 million (officially declared at $520.8 million). Harm is not spread evenly: the national survey consistently finds Maori, Pacific and young New Zealanders over-represented among those affected.
NZ Gambling Expenditure - The Official Five-Year Table
The Department of Internal Affairs publishes a report each year that details the amount of money lost by gamblers - the operators' profits - across the four main forms of domestic gambling. The most recent five financial years of such losses:
| Form | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 | 2023/24 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gaming machines (Class 4 pokies) | $802m | $987m | $833m | $1,070m | $1,037m |
| NZ Lotteries (Lotto NZ) | $631m | $694m | $654m | $710m | $792m |
| Casinos (land-based) | $504m | $559m | $387m | $604m | $592m |
| TAB NZ (racing & sports) | $315m | $385m | $380m | $376m | $371m |
| Total | $2,252m | $2,625m | $2,254m | $2,761m | $2,792m |
Source: Department of Internal Affairs gambling expenditure statistics (operator financial-year figures, nominal dollars, no inflation adjustment). The series in its current form runs from 2010/11; the full data can be downloaded from the DIA and data.govt.nz - links in the sources.
How to Read These Figures Honestly
Three definitions keep the table honest. The amount of money lost by gamblers is referred to as "expenditure" - a figure that is the amount they lost to the operators (the operators' gross profit), not the amount that they wagered, which is many times higher since winnings are recycled into further bets. All values are nominal - not adjusted for inflation, so some of the five-year growth is price level rather than behaviour. And the years represent the financial years of the operators - the DIA publishes the data early in each following calendar year, which is why the 2023/24 row is the most recent available in mid-2026.
And one piece of arithmetic we add ourselves, flagged as ours: the $2.79 billion spread across New Zealand's roughly four million adults works out to approximately $700 in gambling losses per adult per year - before counting anything lost to overseas online casinos. While the average provides a general idea, it hides everything interesting (most adults gamble little or nothing, so the losses concentrate heavily) - but the scale is worth sitting with.
Each Form of Gambling, Analysed
Class 4 pokies - the biggest and the most concentrated
The biggest contributor to the DIA's figures was pub and club gaming machines, which took in $1,037 million in 2023/24. This represents more than a third of the official total - roughly as much as the casinos and the TAB combined. Two structural facts travel with the number: Class 4 is legally required to return a share of proceeds to community purposes, and it is consistently the single largest source of problem-gambling presentations in the harm data below. The biggest form of gambling in New Zealand is also its most harmful per dollar - the tension at the centre of NZ gambling policy. Our online pokies guide compares these Class 4 machines with their online counterparts, return rates included.
Lotto - the steady grower
Losses on Lotto NZ's products increased from $631 million in 2019/20 to $792 million in 2023/24 - the strongest sustained growth in the table, helped by jackpot cycles and the MyLotto online channel. Lotteries are the form of gambling that most New Zealanders participate in, and the least associated with harm presentations per dollar lost.
Casinos - the COVID casualty that recovered
The line for the land-based casinos is the most volatile in the table: $504 million, then a collapse to $387 million in the lockdown-hit 2021/22 year, then a recovery to around $600 million. With the casino moratorium fixing the number of venues at six, this line cannot grow by expansion - the reason that SkyCity's interest in gaining an online licence matters to its future.
TAB - the flat line with a story
TAB betting in New Zealand drifted from $385 million in 2020/21 to $371 million in 2023/24 - flat-to-declining in nominal terms, and worse in real terms. The online monopoly that was granted to the TAB in 2025 was, in part, a response to exactly this line: money leaking to overseas betting sites that the official series never saw.
The Uncounted Column - Overseas Online Casinos
The most important thing about the official table is what it excludes. The statistics do not include the money lost by New Zealanders to online casinos based overseas - the operators of those casinos report to no New Zealand authority, so the DIA's series simply cannot see them. While the declared losses are officially estimated at $520.8 million a year, the more realistic estimate is in the range of $700-800 million once unreported play is included - which would make overseas online casinos the second or third largest form of gambling in the country, invisible in its own statistics. That uncounted market is the one this site reviews - our top online casinos ranking covers it operator by operator.
That invisibility is ending in two stages. Since July 2024, the duty on remote operators has forced registered overseas operators to report their income from New Zealanders to Inland Revenue. And from 1 December 2026, the licensing regime brings up to 15 operators fully onshore - reporting, taxed and countable. These changes will allow the official statistics to "grow" sharply in 2027 and beyond - not due to an increase in the gambling of New Zealanders, but because the country can finally count what was already happening. Both changes will be reflected on this page upon the official publication of the licensed-market figures.
The Harm Statistics
Health New Zealand publishes two separate data sets regarding the damage that is done by gambling. The first, the intervention services data, counts the clients of New Zealand's funded gambling-harm services, published for years from 2004 through 2023. The use of these services has remained roughly static across recent years, despite the at-risk population growing with the country's overall population - a widening gap between harm and help. Furthermore, most of these clients indicate Class 4 pokies as the primary gambling mode causing their harm, year after year.
The second data set is the New Zealand Gambling Survey, which measures the population side: participation, risk and harm among people aged 15 and over. Its consistent finding, repeated in the 2023/24 cycle, is that harm is not evenly spread - Maori, Pacific and some Asian communities, and young people, are over-represented among those affected relative to their participation. The survey data is explorable through the Kupe data explorer linked in the sources.
The gap between these two data sets is a statistic in itself: far more people report gambling harm in the surveys than ever contact a funded service. If gambling is costing you more than it should - money, time or peace - the services are free, confidential and used by thousands of New Zealanders every year. Contact the Gambling Helpline on 0800 654 655, or text 8006. See our responsible gambling page for the full network.
Where the Money Goes
The losses that New Zealanders make on gambling do not simply vanish into the pockets of the operators - the system routes defined slices back out, differently per form. Funds from Class 4 pokies must be distributed to community purposes - sports clubs, charities, local causes - under DIA supervision; Lotto NZ's profits go to the Lottery Grants Board, which distributes funds to communities; and the casinos and the TAB pay duties and levies. Across all forms, a problem gambling levy funds the national harm-prevention strategy within the health system.
Overseas online gambling has historically contributed nothing to any of it - no community share, no levy, no duty - which is the fiscal half of the argument for the licensing regime from December 2026. Licensed operators will pay a duty rising to 16% (four points of which will go to community distribution), a 3.5% licence levy and a 1.24% problem gambling levy. Find more information on the whole framework on the law hub.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much do New Zealanders lose gambling each year?
$2.79 billion was lost by New Zealanders on the country's four main forms of gambling in 2023/24 - pokies ($1,037m), Lotto ($792m), land-based casinos ($592m) and TAB ($371m). The losses to overseas online casinos are an estimated $700-800 million on top, not represented in the official statistics.
What is the biggest form of gambling in NZ?
Class 4 pokies in New Zealand's pubs and clubs, where players lost over a billion dollars in 2023/24 - more than a third of all tracked gambling losses in the country. The pokies are also the single largest source of problem-gambling presentations.
Are online casino losses in the official statistics?
No - the operators of overseas online gambling sites report to no authority within New Zealand, so the DIA statistics cannot include them. The licensing regime of 2026 will change this, however, bringing the market into the official picture for the first time.
Who is most affected by gambling harm?
Maori, Pacific and some Asian communities, as well as young people, are over-represented relative to their participation - based on the results of the New Zealand Gambling Survey, most recently in the 2023/24 cycle. The intervention data adds that service use lags well behind surveyed harm.
Where do these statistics come from?
All the data referenced on this page comes from the official statistics and reports of the Department of Internal Affairs, Health New Zealand and the New Zealand Gambling Survey - every figure links to its official source below.
Written by
Kai Halvorsen
Casino Terms Analyst · Wellington, NZ
Kai reads the fine print for a living. Every guide on this site is built from primary sources - the legislation, the regulators' own publications and each casino's published terms - and updated when the rules change.
Sources - The Official Data
- DIA - Gambling expenditure statistics (the annual losses series behind the table above)
- DIA - Gambling statistics hub (quarterly GMP figures, dashboards and the full statistical programme)
- data.govt.nz - Annual gambling expenditure dataset (downloadable data)
- Health NZ - Problem gambling data and statistics (intervention services data, 2004-2023)
- Health NZ - New Zealand Gambling Survey (participation and harm, adults 15+)
- Kupe data explorer - NZ Gambling Survey (explore the survey data directly)
Related on this site: NZ online casino law · gambling winnings and tax · the grey market explained · responsible gambling services
