The Online Casino Gambling Act 2026, which received Royal assent on 28 April 2026, came into force in New Zealand on 1 May 2026. The Act creates the country's first dedicated licensing regime for online casino gambling and immediately prohibits the advertising of unlicensed online casino gambling; the prohibition on operating without a licence applies to operators already active on 1 May 2026 only from 1 December 2026 or later. The licensing regime will become operational in stages. The Secretary for Internal Affairs will invite expressions of interest from operators in July 2026 through the Government Electronic Tenders Service. The Government has decided that the first competitive licensing round will be conducted by auction.
The Act's core licensing obligations are set out in Part 2. The Secretary for Internal Affairs may grant up to 15 licences, each specifying the gambling platform and branding the operator may use. No person may have significant influence over more than three licences. Each licence is valid for up to three years, renewable for a further five. Applicants must satisfy character and suitability criteria before the Secretary may grant a licence. Part 3 imposes harm minimisation and consumer protection obligations on licensed operators, including age verification at 18, mandatory self-exclusion mechanisms, and compliance with advertising restrictions.
Offshore online casino operators that currently supply New Zealand players must either obtain a licence or cease supplying those players. The advertising prohibition applies from 1 May 2026 and does not wait for the licensing window to open, affecting advertising networks, sponsorship agreements, and affiliate arrangements directed at New Zealand audiences. The Department of Internal Affairs is the designated enforcement body.
The full licensed regime is not expected to be operationally complete until 2027, during which the Department will process applications, establish compliance infrastructure, and assess operator suitability. Under Schedule 1 of the Act, operators already offering online casino gambling to people in New Zealand on 1 May 2026 may continue until 1 December 2026 or, if they apply for a licence before that date, until the earlier of the day after the Secretary notifies them that the licence has been granted or refused and 1 June 2027. The sequencing of enforcement action against offshore platforms without a New Zealand presence will be an operational question for the Department. The advertising prohibition is not subject to the same phased implementation and takes effect from commencement on 1 May 2026.
Licentium advises on iGaming licensing and regulatory compliance across multiple jurisdictions and can draw on a partner network for New Zealand-specific legal counsel. Operators assessing licence eligibility, advertisers reviewing exposure under the prohibition provisions, and payments operators evaluating account relationships with online gambling businesses are welcome to contact us. Work we undertake includes iGaming licensing applications, advertising compliance reviews, gambling payments and banking access, harm minimisation programme design, and multi-jurisdictional operator compliance.
Source: Online Casino Gambling Act 2026 (New Zealand), Public Act 2026 No 14, in force 1 May 2026