received criticism<\/a> there was no requirement for licensed online casinos to return a share of their revenue to community funding.<\/p>\n![\"250624_bridge_war_Conflict\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/4K5B15T_250624_Brooke_van_Velden_1_jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nBrooke van Velden
\nPhoto: RNZ \/ Mark Papalii\n<\/p>\n
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden said she had taken this feedback on board and would be making changes to the bill.<\/p>\n
“The message from communities was loud and clear – if we’re regulating online gambling, they want to see benefits flow back to local sports clubs, community groups, and grassroots organisations,” she said.<\/p>\n
Van Velden said the coalition would increase the offshore gambling duty from 12 percent to 16 percent, with the additional four percent ringfenced for community returns.<\/p>\n
Problem gambling prevention and harm minimisation standards were non-negotiable and unchanged, she said.<\/p>\n
“Protecting Kiwis from gambling harm is still my number one objective. Community funding will not compromise this Government’s commitment to reducing gambling harm.”<\/p>\n
The Minister said predicting the exact impact on existing Class 4 (pokies) returns created uncertainty, so Cabinet had agreed on a two-year review after implementing the community returns policy.<\/p>\n
“This evidence-based review will inform necessary adjustments allowing us to make informed policy decisions based on real-world data in future.<\/p>\n
“This is new money on top of existing funding from pokies, Lotto, and TAB. We’re not taking anything away – we’re adding to what’s already there.”<\/p>\n
Labour’s internal affairs spokesperson, Lemauga Lydia Sosene, called it a “u-turn” and a big win for the community.<\/p>\n
“We’ve heard from countless groups – sports teams, marae, students – who were worried about what losing this funding would mean for them and their community,” she said.<\/p>\n
“It was their advocacy that forced Minister Van Velden to reverse her change, and I applaud them for it.<\/p>\n
“While we back the regulation of online gambling and the Minister’s U-turn, ultimately we still do not support the Minister’s Online Casino Gambling Bill which opens up our doors to offshore online casinos, without a strong plan for harm reduction.”<\/p>\n
Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero<\/a>, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo: 123RF The government is changing its proposed online gambling laws so community organisations, many of whom run…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":107261,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[48,47,42,43,49,46,44,45,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-107260","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-audio","9":"tag-current-affairs","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-podcasts","13":"tag-public-radio","14":"tag-radio-new-zealand","15":"tag-rnz","16":"tag-top-news","17":"tag-top-stories","18":"tag-topnews","19":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107260\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}