Top-Rated Gambling Sites for New Zealand in 2022

About Our Recommendations

Why should you take our recommendations at face value?

This might shock you, but you shouldn’t. At least, not until you know how we come up with our recommendations.

Here are the things we look for, in no particular order, when choosing a site to recommend to our readers.

Promotions

Not being able to claim a bonus or participate in a VIP program isn’t the end of the world. The most important thing you can do is join a reputable site.

But if you can find a legit site with a bonus, why not do that?

The first thing we check for is whether players from NZ can claim a site’s offers. Some casinos have restrictions or additional terms on who can or cannot claim their promotions. We want to make sure players from this region aren’t on that list.

Then we look for a large range of offers. Some sites have all their offers on the casino or sportsbook side of things, leaving players that use their other products empty-handed.

That’s no good. We want offers for every kind of player.

The next thing we look at is how good the deals are. You can get a 100% bonus up to $100 or $300 just about anywhere. Free $10 bets are also in abundance.

• What about a 100% bonus up to $2,500 or even $5,000?
• What about a 400% match bonus up to $4,000?
• What about a $50 free bet, 100+ free spins, or even 250 free bingo tickets?

These are all examples of offers that exist or have existed in the past. They’re also examples of what a generous offer looks like.

Last, we look at the gambling site’s terms. The playthrough needs to be reasonable – no one wants to wager $100,000 to clear a $500 bonus. No one wants to jump through a million hoops to cash their winnings out, either.

Banking

Banking is another important factor. Here are the things we look for.OptionsWe prefer sites that have more Kiwi-friendly options than not. That way, our readers can use the methods they prefer, rather than settle for something they don’t. Visa and Mastercard are standard options. We prefer sites that also accept Skrill, POLi, Entropay, FastBank Transfer, and Paysafecard.LimitsIf you’re a low-stakes player, then you can play just about anywhere and be fine. However, we need to make sure that the sites we recommend can cater to the largest audience possible. This is why we look for sites that offer limits in the 4-6-figure range, depending on whether that’s their daily, weekly, or monthly limits.Fees

The amount you pay in fees is important to pay attention to because that’s either less money you’ll have to play with, less winnings you can cash out, or more money to tack onto your losses. Not one of those options sounds appealing to us.

Unfortunately, fees are hard to avoid in the gambling industry. So the goal instead is to find the cheapest fees you can. We prefer to find flat-rate fees as opposed to percentages, as the amount you’ll pay is capped, and you’ll know exactly what it is each time you request a cash-out.Currency

We want our New Zealand readers to be able to play in NZD (if that’s what you want). Because if you can’t, you may have to deal with exchange rates and currency exchange fees.

These things shouldn’t be terribly difficult to find since there are dozens if not hundreds of gambling sites out there. It’s still something we check for, though, so that our readers aren’t surprised later on.

Gambling Options

This is a biggie because we’re trying to recommend “all-in-one” gambling sites. Unfortunately, many sites nowadays focus on one or two products instead of offering them all. For example, there are several sportsbook/casino combos out there.

But what if you want to play poker and/or bingo too?

This is why we look for and prefer to recommend gambling sites that offer all the most popular gambling products. This includes casino games, sports betting, online poker, and bingo. We also check each of these products out during our review to make sure they’re up to snuff.

Here are some of the things we look for.SportsWe prefer sportsbooks that offer a large quantity of sports and markets for you to bet on. We also look for options such as live betting, as well as features like early payouts.CasinoWe want to recommend casinos that can cover all the bases – they can offer slots, table games, video poker, and a live casino. It’s also important that they have a variety of games and variants in each section.PokerWe look for poker rooms that offer both cash games and tournaments with a robust selection of games, stakes, and variants.Bingo

We prefer that the bingo sites we recommend have several bingo game variants. Features such as changing your daub symbol or color are a bonus. It’s also great when we can find bingo products that offer large prizes and progressive jackpots.

Sites that fit these criteria get a thumbs-up from us. If they offer anything beyond this, such as financial betting or scratch tickets, we consider it a bonus.

Company

There are two things we look for here.

• Whether the casino has their license
• What their reputation is like within the gambling community

Not all licenses are created equal, because the gambling commissions that issue them aren’t created equal.

For example, the gambling site that has a license through the UKGC is far better than the site that has a license through Curacao, all other things being equal.

The reason why it’s better is because the UKGC is far stricter a jurisdiction than Curacao. The end result is a safer and more secure experience for you. It means fairer games. It also means you have recourse if something were to go wrong.

That said, having a license is better than not having one because getting a license is a barrier to entry. This usually includes an application and approval process, as well as fees. There are also requirements operators need to meet in order for their site to be compliant.

At the very least, a license weeds out the worst of the worst.

There are lots of businesses in the world that operate legally but are horrible in terms of the product they put out there, their customer support, and so on.

Gambling sites aren’t any different. Some are better than others. This is why we don’t rely on the casino’s license alone. We also look at their reputation from within the gambling community.

The best place to look into a gambling site’s rep is online forums. You can get a birds-eye view of how a casino treats their customers, how fast they pay them, if they’ve ever ripped anyone off, and more.

That said, one post from an upset and often wrong player isn’t something to judge a gambling site by. You want to look for the sites that have entire threads or sections dedicated to them and how they’ve wronged customers. You want to look for consistent patterns of wrongdoing.

These are the sites we avoid recommending to our readers. We recommend you avoid them, too.

Is It Legal to Gamble in New Zealand?

We have some good and bad news for you.

It is legal to gamble in New Zealand. It wasn’t always. Gambling was declared illegal in 1920.

That said, the legality of (online) gambling depends on what you want to play and how you want to play it. We’ll show you what we mean in a second, but first, let’s look at how the laws have changed over the past few decades.The Racing Act (1971)This was passed to clarify the legality of sports betting in the country. The Totalisator Agency Board (TAB) was established, which ended up having a monopoly over the country’s fixed-odds betting on greyhounds and harness racing.Gaming and Lotteries Act (1977)This law permits non-commercial organizations to run games of chance to raise money for charity or community purposes. It also explains how to get a license to offer charitable games and the rules you needed to follow.Casino Control Act (1990)This made it so that private casinos that operate for private financial gain can operate legally in the country. It stresses that the primary benefit to allowing this is to boost revenue to the country through tourism, as well as increase employment.Gambling Act (2003)This is one of the most current pieces of gaming legislation in New Zealand and is the basis for how things work today. The Gambling Act repealed and consolidated the Gaming and Lotteries Act 1977 and the Casino Control Act 1990 into one act.Racing Act (2003)

This repealed the 1971 Racing Act to make easier rules for the racing gambling industry. It also created the New Zealand Racing Board to take the reigns from the current industry monopoly, TAB. The Racing Board is the only native (and legal) sportsbook in New Zealand.

Got all that? All right, so this is where we get into the “depends on what you want to play and how you want to play it” part of the lesson.

The Gambling Act 2003 also says that “remote interactive gambling” is prohibited. This is defined as “gambling by a person at a distance by interaction through a communication device.”

However, the act goes on to also say that“it is not illegal for someone in New Zealand to participate in gambling over the Internet if that website is based overseas.”

What does that mean for you?

It means that you can gamble online at an offshore gaming operator – one that’s not located in New Zealand.

That’s not to say that outsiders haven’t tried to enter the New Zealand market. For example, Betfair tried to legally enter the market in the early 2000s, but they failed.

That’s all right, though, as there are no consequences to gambling at an offshore operator. Not to mention that many Kiwis prefer offshore sites to TAB or the NZRB, as offshore providers offer a broader range of products and better pricing.

However, even though it’s legal to play at an offshore site, there is an advertising ban. These operators can’t advertise their services to you. What’s more is that, even if it’s okay for you to play at an offshore gambling site, it’s unlikely you can expect much help from your government if things go sour.

That’s one of the reasons why it’s so important to choose a safe and trustworthy gambling site.

New Zealand Gambling FAQ：