Loss of pokie funding could cripple grassroots sport, warns Cycling NZ chair. 

Key Points 

• 33 national sporting organisations in New Zealand are standing against the Online Casino Gambling (OCG) Bill. 
• Concerns focus on a possible NZ$170m (US$102m) drop in funding for sport from pokie revenue. 
• The government has not yet promised how community groups will be funded if the bill becomes law. 

According to The New Zealand Herald, 33 top New Zealand sporting groups say the government’s new Online Casino Gambling (OCG) Bill could cause serious damage to community sporting funding. This OCG bill aims to let 15 overseas online gambling platforms get licensed in New Zealand, but there is no rule to send money to local clubs, unlike the pokie scheme that brings around NZ$170m every year to sports. 

Pokie Money and Community Sports 

Cycling New Zealand Chair Martin Snedden said the bill would break the tradition that uses gambling profits for local projects. Each year, about NZ$350m from class 4 pokie trusts gets shared, and close to 50% reaches amateur clubs and regional sports bodies. He believes switching toward online gambling, which is speeding up worldwide, will cut pokie money for New Zealand sports. Without putting a rule on offshore betting companies to support local grants, sports groups say their biggest funding source could disappear. Minister Brooke van Velden recognized the funding concern but said there is no decision yet on what will happen with the community grants if the bill goes through. 

Sports Groups Seek Government Action 

Snedden disliked that sports groups were not asked for their views and called for the government to act now, not wait for a proven funding gap: “It is obvious this will hurt community funding. Do we wait three years to confirm what is already clear or act now to future-proof funding from international operators?” he said. The minister did say taxes and payments for problem gambling services would come from the online casino businesses, but that there was no plan for community clubs. She added that relying on gambling profits for local funding could make a “perverse incentive.”