Health Coalition Aotearoa now formally recognises gambling as its fourth commercial determinant of harm, alongside tobacco, alcohol, and unhealthy food.
Health Coalition Aotearoa, an advocacy organisation for public health, made the decision at its Annual General Meeting on 14 September.
It will partner with the Problem Gambling Foundation to build the evidence base for better regulating the industry. See Annual Report 2026 .
According to the Ministry of Health’s latest Economic and Social Costing of Gambling in Aotearoa New Zealand 2023/24 report, gambling harm costs New Zealand an estimated $4.2 billion annually, through impacts including poorer physical and mental health, financial hardship, damaged relationships and wider costs to whānau and society.
That harm falls hardest on Māori and Pacific whānau, Asian communities and young people, keeping families locked in poverty and widening inequalities that prevention work elsewhere is trying to close.
Meanwhile, new regulation paves the way for up to 15 new online casino licences in Aotearoa.
The Problem Gambling Foundation says rangatahi are already the group most likely to gamble on offshore online casinos, at three times the overall rate. It warns the new licensing regime, and the advertising that comes with it, risks drawing more young people in and deepening the harm.
“Gambling harm keeps whānau in poverty, widens inequality, and increasingly reaches our young people through products designed to sit in their pockets,” says Jason Alexander interim co-chair Health Coalition Aotearoa.
“Across the Tasman, Australia is moving to tighten gambling advertising and reduce its presence around sport. Here, we seem to be heading in the opposite direction – opening the door wider to the gambling industry when we should be reducing its reach and the harm it causes.”
HCA and the Problem Gambling Foundation are calling on government to properly regulate gambling advertising and licensing before this expansion goes further and are jointly building the evidence to make that case impossible to ignore.
