Kiwis spent $125m more on gambling, stats show

Tuesday, 20 February 2018

The Department of Internal Affairs said an increase in lotteries spending was because of new Lotto games which delivered more winners and bigger Powerball prizes.

Bigger prizes tempted Kiwis to splash out on Lotto over the past year.

New Zealanders spent an extra $125 million gambling in the past financial year, statistics from the Department of Internal Affairs show.

They handed over $2.334 billion for the four main forms of gambling in the 2016/2017 financial year. That includes lotteries, up 26.8 per cent, and non-casino pokie machines, up 3.1 per cent.

Spending on racing and other sport betting dropped 1.3 per cent and casino betting was down 2.4 per cent.

Adjusting for changes in population and inflation, gambling spending increased 1.1 per cent to $635 per person for the year.

The take from NZ Lotteries' product sales increased 26.8 per cent from $437m the year before to $555m in 2016/17.

That worked out to an average $151 per person. The Lottery Grants Board approved $235m in grants for community services and projects.

'Sales for 2016/17 were driven by successful product changes, which resulted in unprecedented Powerball jackpots, together with a range of digital enhancements and a strengthened brand presence in retail,' a Lotto spokeswoman said.

'The financial year also saw two Must Be Won Powerball draws during the year, with New Zealand's biggest-ever jackpots of $40m and $44m.'

Pokie machine spending increased 3.1 per cent to $870m. But adjusted for inflation and population changes, the per-person amount dropped a fraction, from an average $240 to $237.

The take from the country's six casinos decreased 2.4 per cent to $572m.

SkyCity, with four of New Zealand's six casinos, said reduced international business turnover affected gambling revenue.

Andree Froude, spokeswoman for the Problem Gambling Foundation, said her organisation was most concerned about the more harmful types of gambling, such as pokies.

More information was needed to know why the amount spent on them had lifted.

She said there had been a couple of years where the spend had been trending down despite population growth and inflation but it was now holding.

'It isn't tourism, it isn't economic growth and it certainly isn't people having more money to spend because these pokies are in our poorer communities.'

A 'sinking lid' – the practice of not issuing new licenses for machines – was not enough, she said.

Economist Gareth Kiernan, of Infometrics, said it was hard to say what relationship gambling had with the economy.

He said some gambling types might be a 'normal good', which meant people spent more on it when they had more income, while other types might be an 'inferior good', which people turned to when they had less.

'These changes occur in the context of the broader and longer-term gambling environment and economic environment.'