The imminent New Zealand election has the National Party claiming that simple changes to Online Gambling laws could net them an extra $179 million per year. Apart from disputing the math, critics claim that it is not an easy legal task. Many say that getting the necessary regulatory regime up and running by this July is not feasible.
The upcoming New Zealand federal elections have the National Party making wild claims regarding taxing online gambling.
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Nats Say No to Charity
One criticism of the National Party policy is how they will allocate the funds made from their new online gambling set-up. Thus far, the National Party’s leader Christopher Luxum and finance spokesperson Nicola Willis have neglected to voice the expected spiel, with no mention of “harm minimisation” and “charity funding” that always goes hand in hand with discussion around NZ taxes on gambling.
The National’s advisors, Castalia, have given a market value of online gambling in New Zealand as NZ$600-700 million per year. But their market value estimate is very different to others. Edmonds, the Labour Party’s current Minister of Internal Affairs – the department that looks after monitoring and compliance with the Gambling Act 2003 – gives a rough market estimate of $350-600 million. Other esteemed experts agree with Edmonds. This irregularity in estimation weakens confidence in the Nats’ policy.
The Nats say that from this soon-to-be completely captured online gambling sector, that 25% of all spending will be siphoned off to the NZ government. From $600-700 million, they will take $176 million. And from this overly optimistic amount that the Nationals say that they will take, all of it will go to funding their parliament’s budget.
At present, and last time the Nationals were in power, part of all profit from gambling and gaming is given to registered charities. Another part is spent on harm minimisation practices, promotion and development. So, unless the Nationals have a secret extra tax they’ll be taking from online gambling for these purposes, that is not already mentioned … they have simply forgotten the basics of harm minimisation and community benefit. That’s a big oops.
No Time for Law
The other point that weakens confidence in the National Party’s online gambling tax policy, is the time estimated for setting up the laws required for it. Currently, the law in New Zealand is very clear, no new casinos are allowed. So, this (along with other parts of the Gambling Act) would need to be changed. As the leader of the Nats, Christopher Luxon wants this policy up and running by July 1st – in time for the next financial year. But Andree Froude of the Problem Gambling Foundation of NZ states, “It can take quite some time for all of that to come together. There may also be a consultation process”. So, not only will writing and passing the new laws take time, but a consultation process is another time-consuming essential that the Nats have also forgotten to factor in.
The Nationals say the laws are outdated and need changing, that they’d be looking at them as a “matter of urgency”. But during that urgency, concerned parties who have had a lot of time to think about what they want changed in those laws would be trying to force themselves into the decision-making process. And because of a lack of time, the Nationals would need to accept them in. Considering the Nats did not mention charity and community benefits while talking up the policy, would those sectors be likely to get an equal voice in the regulation change process? Or would only the most powerful players get a seat in the room?
