These days, New Zealand has been dealing with a major issue concerning fake gambling. Namely, this country has been having issues with various international gambling websites that are trying to lure Kiwis, but now operators have decided to change their approach and find new ways to bait bettors.
For the time being, according to some reports, there are approximately 13 international gambling websites that are utilizing addresses from this country and there is at least one that is consuming the official coat of arms of New Zealand, making it look appealing and legal to gamblers.
Unsafe For Players:
It seems like all these websites have an “nz” domain, however, none of them are actually operating from the country, nor are they subject to the harsh gambling rules in New Zealand. What does this mean? Unfortunately, this situation may potentially jeopardize gamblers, leaving them without any protection.
For instance, if something bad occurs during gambling, sadly, these players would not be able to report any problem and would remain unprotected. They have to keep in mind that all these sites are mostly owned by criminal institution, hence the chances of something going wrong are pretty big.
What’s The Next Step?
The Department for Internal Affairs (DIA) has given a statement concerning this situation and according to it, they have already tried to get in contact with websites hosting providers with a goal to remove such sites. The DIA’s director of regulatory systems (gambling), Chris Thornborough, talked about the subject:
“One of the sites we contacted was brazen enough to use the government’s official Coat of Arms. We can only presume this was done to suggest some sort of formal connection with the New Zealand government or our local gambling laws.”
He added:
“While most of the sites appear to be internationally-based, at least one could be located within New Zealand. If that’s true, the operator is looking at serious legal and criminal charges. For the others, however, there isn’t much that authorities can do apart from trying to have the sites taken down by providers.”
What’s The Biggest Problem Then?
Although it isn’t illegal for Kiwis to utilize international websites, regulators worry that they will not be able to carefully supervise the entire situation and as we stated previously, DIA wants to make sure that every single gambler is protected. Thornborough added:
“These operators can exist in unregulated or under-regulated places and can be run by criminal organisations looking to cheat you out of your money or use the contact to attempt to hack identities”
Currently, anybody can buy an “nz” domain, however, since the situation has gotten pretty serious, things could drastically change when it comes to this in the near future. Some reports claim that this country is going to accept similar policy to the one that Australia already has.
Source: “New Zealand Faces Fake Gambling Site Problem” https://calvinayre.com/2019/04/18/business/new-zealands-offshore-fake-gambling-site-problem/.Calvin Ayre. April 22, 2019.
