Legal Betting in New Zealand in 2026: The Statutory Monopoly and What It Costs You

Updated October 2026

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Current as of 26 October 2026; verified against the Department of Internal Affairs guidance for online racing and sports betting.

A bet placed in New Zealand is governed by a monopoly that took its current shape on 28 June 2025. From that date, only TAB New Zealand, trading as TAB and Betcha, may offer online racing and sports betting to people in New Zealand. There is no licence register to browse and no second application to file, because no second licence exists. Every other brand a New Zealand punter encounters offshore is, by definition, operating outside the law that governs betting here. That single fact reshapes almost every other question this page answers: who may take your bet, what protection follows the stake, where a complaint goes when it goes wrong, and what the absence of a competing market means for the price a bettor pays.

This page treats the law as the starting point and the consequence as the subject. It moves from the safeguard framework around TAB NZ, into the comparison a reader is making when they compare TAB and Betcha against offshore brands, then back to the statute that creates the monopoly, and finally to the brands themselves on the terms each one publishes. The angle throughout is what follows from this rule, and when that consequence shows up in a betting account.

Safeguards Built Around a Monopoly

A market with one lawful provider does not lose the safeguards a competitive market carries; it concentrates them in one place. The whole framework around TAB NZ exists because the law has decided that gambling harm in New Zealand is the price of having legal betting at all, and that harm-minimisation is the licence to operate. The bettor who wants to know what New Zealand law actually buys them reads this section first.

The Statutory Floor of Protection

The Racing Industry Act 2020, as amended by the Racing Industry Amendment Act 2025, makes TAB NZ the operator and gives it duties alongside the right. Section 74AAA, in force since 28 June 2025, is the prohibition on anyone else: no person other than TAB NZ may offer racing betting, sports betting, or other racing or sports betting to a person in New Zealand, regardless of where that person is incorporated or resident. The change took effect on 28 June 2025, and the Department of Internal Affairs instructed providers serving New Zealand to withdraw with immediate effect.

Around that prohibition sit several obligations TAB NZ must meet. It must keep the risks of problem and underage gambling minimised, and it pays a Problem Gambling Levy of 0.74 percent, in force from 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2028. The levy is paid into harm-prevention services. It is a small percentage; the principle behind it is that the operator funds the harm its product can cause.

A second obligation reaches the bettor directly. TAB NZ accounts need a verified New Zealand address and identity. A punter whose details TAB NZ cannot confirm cannot open an account, fund an account, or withdraw from one. That frictions the sign-up by design — a person whose address is not in New Zealand is not the customer TAB NZ is licensed to serve, and verification is the gate.

Tools the Law Requires TAB NZ to Provide

Inside the app, TAB NZ lists the safer-gambling tools it offers: deposit limits, time-outs, and self-exclusion. A deposit limit caps how much a customer can load into their account over a chosen period; a time-out pauses the account for a shorter interval; self-exclusion closes it for a longer one, and that exclusion applies across both TAB NZ brands. A punter who self-excludes on TAB cannot open Betcha to bypass the closure. The exclusion travels with the person, not the brand.

Betting with TAB NZ while under 18 is an offence under section 89 of the Racing Industry Act 2020. The age for betting is 18 — not 20, the age for entering a land-based casino. The two ages exist because the two regimes answer to different statutes, and merging them is the kind of error that costs a bettor their winnings when a withdrawal is checked against the records on file.

Help That Reaches a Punter Outside the App

The free Gambling Helpline at 0800 654 655 and the text line at 8006 are listed inside the TAB NZ app and run by Safer Gambling Aotearoa. They are free, confidential, and reach a punter whether or not TAB NZ is the operator they bet with — the helpline is for harm from any gambling in New Zealand, not only TAB’s. Counselling, financial advice, and family support sit behind those numbers.

What the Framework Does Not Cover

Several gaps are worth naming in the same breath as the safeguards, because a reader who treats statutory protection as a complete answer is also treating it as more than it is. There is no national online-betting exclusion register comparable to those in some other jurisdictions. The register the 2026 online casino law will require is for online casinos only, not for sports or racing betting. Limits in a TAB NZ account are TAB NZ’s own terms; the law sets no per-bet cap and no statutory deposit ceiling. The minimum age, the levy, the identification requirement, and the helpline are the statutory floor — every other setting lives in the operator’s own terms.

The offshore side of the frame is its own gap. New Zealand does not block bookmaker websites. The law puts liability on the operator, not on the punter, and section 19(4) of the Gambling Act 2003, inserted in 2025, says an individual cannot be convicted for placing a bet with an offshore operator in breach of section 74AAA. No published player penalty exists. What does exist is the Department of Internal Affairs’ stated risk list for offshore play: minimal consumer safeguards, no obligation to address gambling harm, no guarantee that unspent credits come back, and no guarantee that large wins pay out at all. The offshore operator answers to its own jurisdiction, not to New Zealand. A punter who chooses offshore accepts that.

The Practical Shortlist: TAB, Betcha, and the Brands a New Zealand Punter Actually Meets

A reader comparing options in this market is comparing TAB and Betcha against the brands they encounter in ads, in app stores, and in conversation with other punters. This section closes that comparison by giving the brands their own slots — the lawful pair on their own merits, and the offshore brands on the terms each one publishes, so a reader sees both the offer and the absence of New Zealand licensing behind it.

TAB and Betcha are not rivals. They are the two online brands of TAB New Zealand, run under a 25-year partnership signed in 2023 with Entain, which handles operations and takes a 50/50 share of gross profits. The partnership commits at least NZ$150 million a year to TAB NZ for the first five years and a one-off NZ$100 million payment to the racing sector. Two brands exists because the product mixes racing-led and sports-led customers. The operator behind them is one.

Brands outside New Zealand fall into a different bucket. The Department of Internal Affairs names none of them as authorised to take bets here. Each carries a licence from elsewhere — Curaçao, Anjouan, Tobique — and each states its own terms on responsible gambling, payments, and account standing. None of those licences gives a right to take bets from a person in New Zealand. The comparison that follows treats them on what each one’s own pages say, marked for what they are.

Criteria Used in This Comparison

A shortlist in this market turns on three questions. Is the operator authorised to take a New Zealand customer’s bet? What does its own responsible-gambling policy look like, and what does it actually enforce? And on the offer side, what does the brand publish on the markets, payments, and limits a New Zealand punter might meet at the point of betting? Authorisation is the first cut, because no other question about an offshore brand matters while the law still says no.

The ratings that follow answer those three. Where a brand is “the only lawful option”, the rating names what follows — the harm-minimisation floor, the helpline access, the operator-funded levy, the cross-brand exclusion. Where a brand is “not licensed in New Zealand”, the rating names the gap and the risk the Department of Internal Affairs warns about. The point is not to declare a winner; it is to lay out the situation a New Zealand punter walks into.

Authorised Brands Under the Racing Industry Act 2020

These two are the only brands that may lawfully take online racing or sports bets from a person in New Zealand. Both are run by TAB NZ; both carry the same statutory floor.

TAB — The Long-Established Brand

TAB is the original brand. It has been the betting face of New Zealand racing for decades and remains the tote and fixed-odds home for thoroughbred, harness, and greyhound racing, alongside a full sportsbook. Punters comparing options in New Zealand start here because the law makes it the only lawful starting point.

The offer is broad: racing from the codes New Zealand runs, sports across football, rugby, cricket, basketball, tennis, and most codes a New Zealand punter follows. Same-game multis and standard multis are listed in the app. Live betting is available. Promotions take the form of bonus bets run under TAB NZ’s own terms; the law says nothing about bonus-bet size or wagering terms, so the only published source for them is TAB NZ.

The responsibility framework is the statutory one. Deposit limits, time-outs, and self-exclusion are in the app; self-exclusion cuts across both TAB NZ brands. The Gambling Helpline sits one tap away, and the Problem Gambling Levy is paid from this operator’s revenue, not from the punter’s stake.

TAB is the brand most New Zealand punters already know. Its limits, markets, and identity checks are the baseline other brands are measured against.

Betcha — The Sports-Led Sister Brand

Betcha is the second online brand of TAB NZ, sitting in the same group and answering to the same statute. It was launched to reach the sports-led customer the racing-led TAB brand does not speak to as well. It is not a rival bookmaker; it is the same operator’s second front door.

The product shape leans into sports: Same Game Multis across football and rugby, boosted odds on selected events, and a sports-only focus that competes in feel with the offshore brands a punter has heard of. Racing is still available because the operator holds the racing licence. Betcha’s bet-types follow TAB NZ’s betting rules, the same set that defines Win, Place, Quinella, Exacta, Trifecta, First Four, and the multis.

The responsibility framework is identical to TAB — same deposit limits, same time-out, same self-exclusion that carries across both brands. A punter who has excluded themselves from TAB cannot open Betcha to the same exclusion.

Betcha is what a punter chooses when they want the law on their side and a sports-led product. The price of that is the statutory one — no promo codes, no marketing tricks, the same harm-minimisation floor as every other TAB NZ product.

Bookmakers Without a New Zealand Licence

The brands below are listed because a New Zealand punter meets them. Each is operated outside New Zealand under a licence the Department of Internal Affairs does not recognise for taking bets from people in New Zealand. The law that governs betting here is section 74AAA of the Racing Industry Act 2020, which puts liability on any operator offering racing or sports bets to a person in New Zealand without TAB NZ’s authorisation. These brands have not been authorised.

What follows is what each one publishes about itself. Where a brand is silent on a matter, the page does not invent a reading.

FunBet

FunBet is a sportsbook and casino run under the Soft2Bet-style multi-brand group structure. The brand publishes odds on football, ice hockey, American football, basketball, volleyball, tennis, rugby, and baseball, with live betting listed and a 24/7 framing. The licence FunBet names is not a New Zealand licence. FunBet names no licence that applies in New Zealand, and no New Zealand complaints route or harm-minimisation framework reaches it.

For a New Zealand punter, FunBet offers breadth on the sports side. What it does not offer is what section 74AAA protects the only lawful operator for: the helpline a person can call if gambling stops being fun, an exclusion that follows them across brands, and the operator-funded levy that pays for harm prevention. Punters signing up with FunBet from New Zealand do so without any of that, on the operator’s own terms and under whatever jurisdiction FunBet’s licence binds them to.

Rabona

Rabona is the sixth online sportsbook launched by the Soft2Bet group, on 23 December 2019. It carries the standard Soft2Bet offer: football-led, with live betting, casino, and a heavy promotional layer. Rabona names a Curaçao licence, which gives no right to take bets from people in New Zealand.

The defining feature of Rabona is its catalogue breadth — leagues covered, market types offered, the depth of in-play markets. What it does not carry is the New Zealand statutory framework. A New Zealand punter’s complaint about a settled bet goes to the regulator that issued Rabona its licence, not to the Department of Internal Affairs. The Department of Internal Affairs has told operators serving New Zealand to withdraw.

RTbet

RTbet lists football, tennis, table tennis, basketball, ice hockey, American football, and baseball, with live betting and virtual sports named on its home page. The licence RTbet holds is Curaçao-based, and like the others it does not reach New Zealand.

The product mix is the same shape as the rest of the Soft2Bet-aligned brands, with virtual sports adding a 24/7 market where real fixtures are not running. Virtual sport is its own consideration: under the 2026 online casino law, computer-simulated sport falls inside casino gambling rather than sports betting — a classification decision that matters when a punter chooses what is on offer.

Sportaza

Sportaza publishes two licence references: an Anjouan licence (ALSI-202606064-FI2) on its footer and a Tobique licence (number 0000067) in section 1.4 of its terms. A licence mismatch inside one operator’s own pages is worth flagging because it is the kind of detail a punter checks before trusting an operator with a stake.

The product itself is standard for this brand class — sportsbook, casino, and live betting. Sportaza’s offering to a New Zealand punter rests entirely on its own terms and the regulator that issued the licence Sportaza names. Neither is New Zealand.

Rooster (Novatrix SRL)

Rooster is operated by Novatrix SRL, a Costa Rica company with registration number 3-102-893958, holding an e-gaming licence (number 0000002) from the Tobique Gaming Commission. The Tobique Gaming Commission is not a New Zealand regulator, and the licence does not give Rooster the right to take racing or sports bets from people in New Zealand.

Rooster’s liability for a New Zealand punter is consequently the same as every other offshore brand on this list: it answers to its own jurisdiction, not to the Department of Internal Affairs, and the risks the Department of Internal Affairs names — unspent credits not returned, large wins not paid out, no harm-minimisation framework — apply in full.

RoyalistPlay

RoyalistPlay is another Novatrix SRL brand, holding the same Tobique e-gaming licence (0000002) as Rooster. RoyalistPlay is a casino-led brand with a sportsbook attached; the casino weighting is heavier than the sports side. For a New Zealand punter the operator’s status is the same — not licensed here, governed by Tobique, no New Zealand complaints route.

A punter who prefers casino-heavy products will see RoyalistPlay’s catalogue and recognise it. What they will not see is the New Zealand statutory framework: no New Zealand harm-minimisation floor, no helpline inside the app, no Problem Gambling Levy paid for that brand.

Winz Casino Casino

Winz Casino holds licences from both Anjouan and Tobique per its footer, with the same multi-jurisdiction shape as several other brands in this list. Its product is casino-led with a sportsbook attached; the licence structure matters less than the underlying point that neither Anjouan nor Tobique is the New Zealand regulator.

Winz Casino’s terms and the regulator it answers to govern a New Zealand punter’s experience. The Department of Internal Affairs’ warning applies in full: no New Zealand complaints route, no guarantee that unspent credits come back, no guarantee that a large win pays out.

Spinbara

Spinbara publishes three welcome offers on its English site: a first-deposit casino bonus of 100 percent up to EUR 100, a sport crypto welcome bonus of 100 percent up to 200 USDT, and a casino welcome bonus of 100 percent up to EUR 500 plus 200 free spins. Spinbara’s licence picture is the same as several other brands here — names no licence that applies in New Zealand.

The welcome package is the loudest part of a Spinbara sign-up, and it is the part that earns the closest reading. Bonuses clear on Spinbara’s own terms; the terms sit on Spinbara’s pages, not on any New Zealand regulator’s register. A New Zealand punter who joins for the offer reads those terms before the deposit goes in.

What the Comparison Adds Up To

The comparison above reads as two halves because that is what it is. On one side, the two lawful brands of TAB NZ, with the statutory floor behind them. On the other, eight offshore brands, each with its own product and its own regulator, none of which is the Department of Internal Affairs and none of which extends to New Zealand the law the punter loses.

A punter weighing those two halves against each other weighs the breadth and marketing of the offshore brands against the safeguards and lawfulness of TAB NZ. There is no middle ground here that the law recognises — the law’s answer to “is offshore legal?” is that the operator is breaking New Zealand law to serve a New Zealand punter, even if the punter cannot be convicted. The choice a punter actually makes is the one between following the law with TAB NZ and operating outside it with a brand licensed elsewhere.

The Statute Behind the Monopoly

The law on betting in New Zealand was reshaped by the Racing Industry Amendment Act 2025, which inserted section 74AAA into the Racing Industry Act 2020. The change took effect on 28 June 2025, and the Department of Internal Affairs told providers serving New Zealand to withdraw with immediate effect. The Racing Industry Act 2020 remains the operator’s governing statute; the 2025 amendment is the prohibition that closes the door to anyone else.

The Prohibition Itself

Section 74AAA states that no person other than TAB NZ may offer racing betting, sports betting, or other racing or sports betting to a person in New Zealand, regardless of where that person is resident or incorporated. “Person” covers companies, partnerships, and individuals; “offer” covers advertising, taking bets, settling bets, and running the infrastructure that does either. The provision does not stop a New Zealand punter from betting; it stops anyone other than TAB NZ from offering.

The “regardless of where” phrase is doing the heavy lifting. A bookmaker registered in Malta, Curaçao, Anjouan, or Tobique does not escape section 74AAA by being incorporated elsewhere; what matters is whether the bet is offered to a person in New Zealand. The Department of Internal Affairs’ position is that an overseas company offering these bets is breaking the law in New Zealand.

What Is and Is Not Covered

What may be bet on, under the statute, is racing and sports betting from TAB NZ only. TAB NZ takes fixed-odds and tote bets, and its published betting rules define Win, Place, Each Way, Quinella, Exacta, Trifecta, First Four, Double, Treble, Daily Double, Running Double, Quaddie, Big6, and the multis. Same Game Multis sit within the multis family. Live betting is available in the app; the statute does not restrict in-play markets and no separate restriction has been published. Virtual sport, computer-simulated fixtures and esports sit on different ground: the 2026 online casino law treats virtual sport as casino gambling, and whether esports betting is “sports betting” under the Racing Industry Act is not settled in statute. A punt on a virtual football match is consequently in a different category than a punt on a real one, and the statutes that govern each are not the same.

Politicians, novelty markets, and spread betting fall outside TAB NZ’s published betting types. No lawful New Zealand betting exchange exists. There is no statutory per-bet cap; the limit a TAB NZ punter meets is the operator’s own ceiling. The ban covers events held inside and outside New Zealand: a TAB NZ bet on the Melbourne Cup is no different in law from a TAB NZ bet on a fixture at Eden Park.

Player-Side Rules

The age for TAB NZ betting is 18. A punter placing a TAB NZ bet under 18 commits an offence under section 89 of the Racing Industry Act 2020. The land-based casino age of 20 is a separate rule under a separate regime and does not extend to betting. TAB NZ verifies a New Zealand address and identity before the account funds; that gate is the practical implementation of the age and residency checks.

The offshore rule reads differently. An individual placing a bet with an offshore operator in breach of section 74AAA cannot be convicted, under section 19(4) of the Gambling Act 2003. No published player penalty exists. What does exist is the Department of Internal Affairs’ risk list: minimal consumer safeguards, no obligation to address gambling harm, no guarantee that unspent credits return, and no guarantee that a large win pays out.

Tax, Levies, and the Operator’s Own Charges

On the player side, Inland Revenue treats recreational gambling winnings as generally not taxable, and prize money from TAB horse, dog, and trotting races is not taxable. A person who bets as a business is a different case and falls outside general guidance. Operator side: TAB NZ pays the Problem Gambling Levy at 0.74 percent, in force from 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2028. Overseas operators supplying New Zealand residents pay online gambling duty of 12 percent of profits since 1 July 2024, rising to 16 percent from 1 January 2027. A duty being payable does not make an offer lawful; tax status and lawful status are different questions. The point-of-consumption charge on offshore racing and sports bets ceased on 30 June 2026.

Advertising and What May Be Marketed

Because only TAB NZ may offer betting here, the Department of Internal Affairs reads the prohibition as covering promotion of bets for another operator too. Betting advertisements in New Zealand are also governed by the Advertising Standards Authority’s Gambling Advertising Code: ads must not target children (under 14) or young people (14 to under 18), judged by context and appeal, with a 25 percent significant-audience threshold where accurate data exists, must not encourage harm, and must be truthful with terms available. There is no New Zealand equivalent of a whistle-to-whistle ban for betting.

The Online Casino Gambling Act 2026 is the wrong instrument for sports betting. It licenses online casino gambling only and does not license sports betting; the fact that TAB New Zealand may now apply for a casino licence does not extend the betting monopoly in either direction.

Greyhound Racing’s Closing Window

The Racing Industry (Closure of Greyhound Racing Industry) Amendment Bill passed on 2 April 2026 and closes commercial greyhound racing in New Zealand from 1 August 2026. From that date, TAB NZ takes no more greyhound bets, and offshore operators may not take bets on greyhound races either. The greyhound code is consequently a fixed-window market for the punter looking through the back-catalog of fixtures still to run.

What a Punter Compares Against the Monopoly: The Detail Behind the Brands

The brands above are short to shortlist and worth a deeper look at the criteria that actually move the needle in New Zealand. The following comparison table gives a compact reference for each brand on the three criteria set out earlier: authorisation in New Zealand, what the operator’s own terms state, and where the responsible-gambling framework sits.

Reading the Spread

The table compresses information but does not replace it. Two patterns stand out. The first is that TAB and Betcha carry the same framework because they are the same operator, and the offshore brands each carry their own framework without any of them extending to New Zealand. The second is the missing column — there is no statutory New Zealand complaints route because there is no statutory framework to extend it to offshore brands; the absence is the message.

What a Punter Checks on a Brand Not Listed Here

A reader who meets a brand not on this shortlist applies the same three questions. Is the operator authorised to take bets from people in New Zealand? If yes, the brand is part of TAB NZ under another name; if no, the law treats it as breaking New Zealand law to serve a New Zealand punter. What does the operator’s own responsible-gambling policy state, and is it enforced? What is the regulator, and where does a complaint go? Each question has a New Zealand frame, because the frame is what the section 74AAA penalty attaches to.

The Cost of Operating Inside the Monopoly: What the Math Says

The expected cost of betting inside a monopoly is the same arithmetic any bookmaker charges, run on the operator’s terms instead of the operator’s competition. A monthly budget of NZ$500, staked once on an illustrative two-way market at decimal odds 1.90 / 1.90, gives a payout share of 1 divided by (1 / 1.90 + 1 / 1.90), which is 1 / 1.0526…, or just under 0.95 — about 95 percent of stakes returned to winning bettors on that market. The margin, the difference between the full stake and the payout share, is about 5 percent. On the NZ$500 turnover, that 5 percent margin is roughly NZ$25 in expected cost, before any other term the operator’s rules apply. The illustrative range sits around NZ$20 to NZ$30 depending on which markets the punter actually plays; the band shows what two-way and three-way markets do to the margin, with broader outcome markets holding a larger share of stake.

That figure is an estimate, not a prediction. The expected cost is what an average over many bets of that size and shape might cost; for any single punter, the result is whatever the bets settle at. The arithmetic is useful because it is the only answer to “what does this market cost?”, and the only way a punter can know what they are buying before they buy it.

The off-market consequence is straightforward. Tab and Betcha publish odds on the same markets any bookmaker does, with the same kind of margin. What a punter pays in expected cost is in line with what a competitive market might charge for the same fixtures, except the competition that might have lowered that margin is not here to lower it. The price a punter pays is the price the monopoly sets, which is the price the law allows.

How a Punter Uses This Page

A punter who arrives at this page looking for “what is legal in New Zealand” has the answer in the first sections: TAB and Betcha, with the statutory floor behind them, are the only lawful options, and everything offshore is operating outside section 74AAA. A punter comparing offers finds that picture in the operator review section, where the table compiles the brand-by-brand terms. A punter checking a specific mechanism — what a self-exclusion covers, what the helpline is, what the levy pays for — finds it in the safeguards section. Each section is built around the same answer; the depth differs because the question differs.

What this page is not, on purpose, is a route to an offshore sign-up. The page describes what each brand publishes and judges it on that, and the law treats joining an offshore brand for racing or sports bets as the operator breaking the law, not the punter. The page helps a punter see what the law says; it does not invite a punter to break it.

Frequently Asked Questions About Legal Betting in New Zealand

Are offshore betting sites legal?

The Department of Internal Affairs says it is illegal under New Zealand law for any person or organisation except TAB NZ to offer racing or sports bets to people in New Zealand. Section 19(4) of the Gambling Act 2003 says a punter cannot be convicted for placing such a bet; no published player penalty exists. The operator is the one breaking New Zealand law.

How is betting on horse racing legal?

Only TAB NZ and Betcha may take bets on horse racing from people in New Zealand, under section 74AAA of the Racing Industry Act 2020. The statute covers both fixed-odds and tote bets, and the bet-types Win, Place, Quinella, Exacta, Trifecta, and First Four sit within TAB NZ’s published rules. No other operator may offer these bets.

Is any online sports betting legal?

Yes — only TAB NZ, trading as TAB and Betcha, may offer online sports betting to people in New Zealand since 28 June 2025. The Online Casino Gambling Act 2026 licenses online casinos only and does not extend to sports betting. Anyone else offering online sports bets to a person in New Zealand is breaking section 74AAA.

Which bookmaker may lawfully take sports and racing bets in New Zealand?

Only TAB New Zealand, operating as TAB and Betcha. The Racing Industry Act 2020 establishes TAB NZ as the sole provider, and the 2025 amendment inserts section 74AAA to lock that position in. There is no licence register for bookmakers because no second licence exists.

Are TAB and Betcha two different bookmakers?

No. They are the two online brands of TAB New Zealand, the same operator under different names, run under a partnership with Entain. Betcha was launched to reach sports-led customers the racing-led TAB brand does not serve as well. Self-exclusion applies across both brands, and the licence sits with TAB NZ as the holder.

Published by the Nzhoopsbets team.