Politicians face grilling from young people calling for online gambling restrictions
Election candidates have faced a grilling from young people calling for more restrictions for online gambling.
Three political hopefuls were asked what their parties would do about the harm it causes.
Many of the people they heard from felt pushed into action because they’ve grown up inundated by online ads for gambling outfits and have seen firsthand their mates gamble away meagre student incomes.
Faith Tupuhi has watched online gambling harm seeping into her community.
She studies at the University of Otago and said she’s constantly surrounded with people using online pokies and sports betting apps.
Tupuhi is a co-designer of Touchgrass, a specialist youth digital wellbeing and screen addiction treatment service.
“Just putting the big spin-wheel up on the projector, and something called feast or famine.”
“You put all your dinner money onto bets and you either feast for dinner, or famine.”
At first, putting a few dollars on an online gambling app might seem harmless.
But Faith Tupuhi said it’s led some students to gamble their weekly student loan payments, that they’d usually use to pay for rent or food.
Faith Tupuhi and Laga Jensen
Bella Craig/RNZ
“One of the guys ended up trying to win back all his money [because] he lost all of the rent money.”
“They were taken to the tribunal and that has ruined a lot of [his] friendships in the flat.”
It’s a story all too familiar for fellow University of Otago student Laga Jensen, who told Checkpoint online gambling has become normalised in Dunedin.
“It’s just how normal it seemed, in the library, pre-drinks, afters, at full on street parties.”
On Friday, at a community hall in Auckland’s Greenlane, young people questioned election candidates about the issue, at a meeting put on by the Problem Gambling Foundation, Asian Family Services and Mapu Maia.
In the hot seat was The Green’s Party’s Ricardo Menéndez March, New Zealand First’s Sheldon Eden-Whaitiri and National’s Greg Fleming.
Young people put their questions to The Green’s Party’s Ricardo Menéndez March, New Zealand First’s Sheldon Eden-Whaitiri and National’s Greg Fleming.
Bella Craig/RNZ
In response to a question asking the candidates their parties position on advertising, all candidates agreed that advertising should not be able to be targeted to people under 18 years old.
Sheldon Eden-Whaitiri said, “New Zealand First is very pragmatic that gambling does exist, but it shouldn’t be targeting kids and children.”
The Green Party’s Ricardo Menéndez March said his party was committed to introducing a ban on online gambling advertisements.
“Advertisements in my view and the marketing rules that exist right now only serve to actually benefit the companies that profit from the harm that it causes.”
A new law passed this year means 15 offshore online casinos can have licenses to operate in Aotearoa.
National’s Greg Fleming said the Online Casino Gambling Bill has been where the government focused on mitigating online gambling harm.
By law, online gambling companies must have a harm-prevention strategy, ensure users are at least 18 years old and stick to advertising restrictions.
But Melissa Thompson, Chief Executive of the Problem Gambling Foundation said the restrictions don’t go far enough because they are not addressing volume or frequency.
“I think the advertising’s the key, it’s so visible, it’s in young people’s pockets, it’s in their phones, it’s on their desktops.”
“[We need] really strong regulations around advertising for not just online casinos, but sports betting, some consistency across the board.”
Sitaleki Tonga, from Mapu Maia told Checkpoint he’d also like to see stronger regulation in place for advertising.
“Even if you jump on a simple website like YouTube, you get like three to four ads coming on.”
Sitaleki Tonga (right)
Bella Craig/RNZ
“Even in live sports sometimes, you might [be watching] a team like the Warriors, but unfortunately sometimes it’s advertised during half-time or pre-game.”
Some people are exposed to online gambling through online gaming, through features such as loot boxes and using in-game currency.
Faith Tupuhi said she’d like to see gambling restrictions extend to gaming.
“I just don’t think it is discussed as an issue as a whole, so just talking about it and understanding just how young kids are using it.”
“We were finding 13, 16 and 9-year-olds all hopping on Roblox and on other online gaming apps, or using their older siblings.”
A recent New Zealand Gambling Survey found that 44 per cent of young people aged 15-24 participated in gambling in the past year.
And Māori, Pacific and Asian communities were disproportionately affected by gambling harm.
26,000 young people are classified as moderate-to-high-risk gamblers.