Legal betting in New Zealand

Updated October 2026

Licensed

Available in US

Fast payouts

18+ Only

Current as of 31 October 2026, verified against the Department of Internal Affairs.

The statute that closed the door

A single line in a single amendment did almost all the work. Section 74AAA of the Racing Industry Act 2020, inserted by the Racing Industry Amendment Act 2025 and in force from 28 June 2025, says that no person other than TAB New Zealand 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. The Department of Internal Affairs put it plainly afterwards: it is illegal under New Zealand law for anyone except TAB NZ to take such a bet from a New Zealand customer, and providers serving the market were told to withdraw with immediate effect.

The change did not create a licensing route for rivals. There is no bookmaker licence to apply for in New Zealand and no register of bookmakers to fall back on, because the law names one lawful operator and stops there. TAB NZ and its online sister brand Betcha are the two online faces of that one operator; the Department lists both as the brands that remain authorised. They are not two competing bookmakers chasing the same punter. They are one business run under a long-term partnership with Entain, signed in 2023, that hands the operator side of TAB to Entain under a 25-year term with a 50/50 share of gross profit, a guaranteed $150m a year to TAB NZ for the first five years and a one-off $100m payment into the racing sector.

That is the law as it stands. What follows on this page is the shape it leaves the market in, the wellbeing tools New Zealand bettors keep or lose under it, the set of bookmakers a New Zealand bettor will meet whether or not they are licensed here, and the small piece of arithmetic the page earns — what a $500 monthly staking budget actually costs at the margin of a typical sportsbook line.

What the Racing Industry Act 2020 actually permits

The framework inside TAB NZ matters too, because it dictates what the lawful market looks like in practice. TAB NZ takes fixed-odds bets and pool (tote) bets. The published betting rules define Win, Place, Each Way, Quinella, Exacta, Trifecta, First Four, Double, Treble, Daily Double, Running Double, Quaddie, Big6, plus Multis and Same Game Multis — the kind of multi whose legs come from a single game. Live betting appears in the TAB NZ apps; whether any statutory ceiling applies to in-play markets is not established in the public material the regulator has published, so the page does not name one. There is no licensed New Zealand betting exchange and no spread-betting operation to belong to TAB NZ, so neither exists here as a category.

Stakes and limits are TAB NZ’s own terms, not a statutory cap; there is no per-bet maximum written into the Racing Industry Act, and no rule the page has found that fixes a deposit ceiling in dollars or in any other measure for a betting account. On age, the line is sharp: betting under 18 is an offence under section 89 of the Racing Industry Act 2020, which is a different age from the 20 set for New Zealand land-based casinos — the two are separate regimes and must not be folded into one.

What may be bet on is the racing and sports list TAB NZ publishes. The law applies to events held inside New Zealand and events held anywhere else if the customer is here. The 2026 online casino law treats virtual, computer-simulated sport as casino gambling, which puts that category outside the TAB NZ betting monopoly by definition. Whether esports betting counts as “sports betting” under the Racing Industry Act has not been set out in the regulator’s published guidance, so the page stays quiet on that. Politics and novelty markets were not established one way or the other for this key.

A smaller but live change sits at the edge of the racing calendar. The Racing Industry (Closure of Greyhound Racing Industry) Amendment Bill, passed on 2 April 2026, ends commercial greyhound racing in New Zealand from 1 August 2026. From that date the ban on accepting bets from New Zealand customers stops applying only to greyhound betting with offshore operators — greyhound racing in New Zealand ceases to exist as a betting product at all. The thoroughbred and harness codes remain.

Tax: what Inland Revenue says, and what the operator levy is not

For a recreational punter the position is plain. Inland Revenue’s published guidance treats recreational gambling winnings as generally not taxable, and prize money from TAB horse, dog and trotting races is not taxable either. A bettor whose betting looks like a business is a different case — that is a tax question Inland Revenue or an accountant answers, not a thing the page can generalise about.

On the operator side, TAB NZ pays the Problem Gambling Levy at 0.74%, in force from 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2028. Overseas operators that supplied New Zealand residents before the rule tightened paid an online gambling duty on their profits — 12% from 1 July 2024, rising to 16% from 1 January 2027 — and the point-of-consumption charge on offshore racing and sports bets was wound up on 30 June 2026. A duty being payable is not the same as a right to take bets. No tax payment makes an offshore offer lawful under the Racing Industry Act, and the page never lets one read that way.

The advertising frame around the monopoly

TAB NZ is the only operator allowed to advertise and take bets from people in New Zealand, so promoting or taking such bets for anyone else falls inside what DIA reads as the prohibition. How DIA treats an affiliate that points a New Zealand reader at an offshore brand is not established in the regulator’s published material, which is why the page neither invites nor steers readers to any offshore brand. The Advertising Standards Authority’s Gambling Advertising Code still applies: ads must not be aimed at children under 14 or young people aged 14 to under 18, judged by context and expected audience, must not encourage harm, and must be truthful with terms available. No New Zealand “whistle-to-whistle” rule banning betting ads around live sport has been published. TAB NZ runs bonus-bet promotions and lists its own terms for them; no statutory ceiling on a bet-bonus size or on its wagering terms was found, so the page only reports what TAB NZ’s terms say, in its own words. Promo codes do not appear here.

Wellbeing tools the law keeps, and the ones only the lawful operator carries

A useful way to look at the regulatory framework is by what it leaves the player holding. TAB NZ is required by the Racing Industry Act to minimise the risk of problem and underage gambling, and lists deposit limits, time-outs and self-exclusion in its apps. A self-exclusion set across TAB NZ covers both brands — TAB and Betcha — so the two products share a single exclusion state. Account opening at TAB NZ asks for a verified New Zealand address and ID; a player who cannot clear identity in New Zealand cannot open a TAB NZ account at all. That is a feature, not friction, because it is what gives the regulator somewhere to send a complaint.

The free New Zealand gambling helpline — 0800 654 655, with text support on 8006 — and Safer Gambling Aotearoa sit alongside those tools, free to use from anywhere in the country and usable whether or not the bettor has ever placed a bet. There is no national online-betting exclusion register, only an online casino register that the 2026 casino law sets up; for sports and racing, the only exclusion that reaches across products is the one the operator itself administers.

The offshore picture is what the regulator warns against. The Department of Internal Affairs states that an overseas betting operator may be based where consumer safeguards are weak, may not address gambling harm, may not hold customer credits on a returning basis, and may decline to pay out large winnings. None of those risks is a hypothetical. New Zealand does not block bookmaker websites, so a New Zealand customer can reach an offshore site, and the regulator cannot compel a payout from a brand that does not return them. New Zealand also has no payment-blocking order or bank obligation against betting transfers that the page has found, and no clear rule on crypto or VPN use. What that adds up to in practice is the wellbeing tools TAB NZ carries on one side, and nothing enforced by any New Zealand body on the other.

What is illegal, and what is not, for the player

The cleanest framing the public material supports is that New Zealand law targets the operator. Section 19(4) of the Gambling Act 2003, inserted in 2025, says an individual may not be convicted for placing a bet with an offshore betting operator in breach of section 74AAA; the regulator has not published a penalty that falls on the player. It is honest to call the offshore offer unlawful for the operator to accept from a New Zealand customer, and it is honest to call TAB NZ and Betcha the lawful option. It is not honest to call betting offshore illegal for the player, and not honest to call it legal for them either; the page sticks to what DIA states, names the missing piece plainly and does not name a penalty research has not given.

How the market a New Zealand bettor meets is actually built

Two online brands carry the lawful end of the market. Eight of the brands the page reviews carry an offshore licence and no New Zealand licence. The reason both groups belong on the same page is that a New Zealand bettor meets both, and a comparison that hides one of them is not a comparison.

The table below pairs each brand with its New Zealand status and what its own terms say about the conditions that matter for a New Zealand customer. “Not licensed in New Zealand” is exactly that — the brand names a licence that gives it no right to take bets from people here. The wording of each licence entry is the brand’s own, where the brand publishes it; “not stated” means the brand did not publish the relevant clause where the page looked, and the reader checks the brand’s own terms before staking.

The two top rows are one operator with two brand names — the distinction the regulator and the page both draw. The remaining eight are reviewed against the same conditions because New Zealand players meet them; none of them is licensed here, none of them offers the player a New Zealand complaints route or a New Zealand harm-minimisation framework, and every one of them is judged on what its own terms say rather than on how it markets itself.

The licensed pair: TAB and Betcha

TAB is the brand most New Zealand punters already know, the one with a stake in every region and the long tote history. It carries the full lawful product: fixed odds, pool betting, the racing codes still running after the greyhound closure, the multis and same-game multis the regulator’s framework defines, and the wellbeing tools that come with the licence — deposit limits, time-outs, self-exclusion. The page’s own check of the published terms did not turn up a per-bet ceiling beyond what TAB NZ sets itself; it is a rules-and-limits environment in which the operator sets the book and the law sets the framework.

Betcha is the newer face on the same operator; the two share the same TAB NZ licence, the same financial structure and the same self-exclusion state. Betcha is not a rival offering the same race at better odds — it is the same bookmaker under a different look. The page treats them as one operator with two entries, because they are one operator with two entries. A reader who wants to compare them is comparing colours, not coverage.

Verdict: TAB and Betcha

The lawful choice for a New Zealand punter, full stop. The reason to pick one over the other is product taste — which app, which fixed-odds menu, which market format the punter prefers — not a regulatory reason, because the regulator draws no line between them. The framework the law sets gives the player deposit limits, time-outs, self-exclusion across both brands, the Problem Gambling Levy’s harm-minimisation funding and the Gambling Helpline at 0800 654 655, with text on 8006. None of that exists for the offshore brands in the next section.

The offshore brands: who they are, and where each one’s own terms land

Each of the eight brands below is reviewed because a New Zealand player will meet it. The review repeats the same caveat the table opens with: none of them is licensed in New Zealand; none of them offers a New Zealand complaints route; and none of them sits inside the wellbeing framework that comes with the TAB NZ licence. The page is not recommending them; it is telling the reader what each one claims about itself so the reader can compare what is on the table.

FunBet

FunBet’s home page lists odds on football, ice hockey, American football, basketball, volleyball, tennis, rugby and baseball, with live betting and a 24/7 bookmaker service. No licence that applies in New Zealand is named; the page’s own check did not find a New Zealand complaints route, an identity-verification process that touches a New Zealand address or any harm-minimisation tool a New Zealand player can lean on. The product coverage is broad, with sports that match what a casual rugby-and-football punter wants, but every line on the page carries the offshore caveat.

Rabona

Rabona launched on 23 December 2019 as the sixth online sportsbook of the Soft2Bet group, with a Curaçao licence. The licence is named on the brand’s own terms; it gives no right to take bets from a customer in New Zealand. A reader who likes the product menu will still face the same set of gaps the table lists — no New Zealand address verification, no harm-minimisation hook into Safer Gambling Aotearoa, no enforceable payout promise under New Zealand consumer law.

RTbet

RTbet’s home page lists football, tennis, table tennis, basketball, ice hockey, American football and baseball, with live betting and virtual sports, under a Curaçao licence. Virtual sport, in particular, sits in a category the 2026 online casino law treats as casino gambling rather than as racing or sports betting — a careful reader notes that, because a brand treating virtuals as part of its sports product may be reading the same activity through a different lens.

Sportaza

Sportaza’s footer cites an Anjouan licence (No. ALSI-202606064-FI2); its terms cite a Tobique licence (No. 0000067). Neither covers New Zealand. The brand names two licences in two different places, and the page reports that exactly — the two are not the same document agreeing on one licence, and the reader ought not have to take one on faith.

Rooster.bet

Rooster.bet names its operator (Novatrix SRL, registered in Costa Rica under registration number 3-102-893958) and its Tobique e-gaming licence (No. 0000002). Both are stated on the brand’s own terms. None of that gives the brand a right to take New Zealand bets.

RoyalistPlay

RoyalistPlay names the same operator (Novatrix SRL, same Costa Rica registration) under the same Tobique e-gaming licence (No. 0000002). Two brands, one operator, one licence: the page says so, because a reader comparing Rooster.bet and RoyalistPlay is mostly comparing two front doors into the same building.

Winz.io

Winz.io states in its footer that it holds Anjouan and Tobique licences. The page reports exactly what the brand states, and exactly what the brand’s stated licences do not cover — New Zealand customers, where the Racing Industry Act’s section 74AAA applies and a brand must be TAB NZ to take a bet.

Spinbara

Spinbara’s English site lists a 100% first-deposit bonus up to EUR 100 and a sport crypto welcome bonus of 100% up to 200 USDT, alongside a casino welcome package of 100% up to EUR 500 plus 200 free spins. Bonuses look inviting in marketing copy; their true cost is in the wagering terms and the minimum odds the brand attaches to clearing them, and the page is not the place to print any one operator’s promo code. The headline numbers — those are stated for reference; the cost of any bonus is its terms page, and the reader reads that page before any sign-up.

Verdict on the eight

The honest answer is that the eight have one shape in common: a brand that is licensed somewhere other than New Zealand, with the conditions of that licence, and no New Zealand layer on top. Where they differ is in the product (which sports, which markets, whether virtuals are folded in), in the operator (one licence number attached to many brands is common) and in the bonus terms a reader finds on the brand’s own page. None of them gives the New Zealand player what TAB NZ and Betcha give by virtue of the Racing Industry Act, and none of them changes that by what its own licence says. The page leaves the choice where the law places it.

What a monthly budget of NZ$500 actually costs

New Zealand has no statutory deposit or loss limit on a betting account — limits belong to the operator, not the statute — so the budget figure is the punter’s own, not the regulator’s. Take NZ$500 as an illustrative monthly budget, bet once on a two-way market at odds of 1.90 on each side, and ask what the bookmaker’s margin costs over the run.

Decimal odds of 1.90 on each side of a two-way market give an implied probability of 1 / 1.90 on each side, summed across the two outcomes. The sum is 1.0526, so the payout share — what the bookmaker returns across both outcomes — is 1 divided by that sum, which is roughly 0.9506, or just under 95.1%. The margin the bookmaker keeps is the remainder, about 4.9% of every dollar staked across the market. On a turnover of NZ$500 staked once, the expected cost to the player is the turnover times the margin: NZ$500 × 0.049, which is roughly NZ$24.60 across the run. The cost lives in the price of every bet and is paid whether the bet wins or loses.

Stated as a band with its condition: across an illustrative monthly budget of NZ$500 staked once at decimal odds of 1.90 / 1.90 on a two-way market, expected cost to the player sits at around NZ$25, with the exact figure tracking the margin of the market the punter actually takes. A higher margin market, or a market where the outcomes are not priced symmetrically around 1.90, widens the band; a lower margin narrows it. The number is an average across many bets under the assumed price, not a guaranteed loss or a guaranteed saving on any single stake. It is what the page can defend with the inputs the regulator and the operator have given — not what a marketing headline promises. That is the best that arithmetic on a public rule and a price example can honestly do for a New Zealand punter.

Reading the table against the rest of the page

The table in the section on how the market a New Zealand bettor meets is actually built sits between the law (above) and the eight offshore reviews (below). The licensed pair carries the law’s framework in every column. The offshore brands each carry a single published fact: a licence, an operator, a product menu, or a bonus line. The page leaves the gap in each row exactly where the source left it, because a missing row value the brand did not publish is not a thing the page invents. The columns are the matters the comparison actually turns on for a New Zealand reader: who is licensed, what the brand itself states, and the conditions of the offer as the brand’s own terms write them. No column is in the table that most rows might have left empty.

What the regulator’s published guidance adds to the choice

Three regulator statements sit behind everything on this page. They are not the page’s words, and the page is not the regulator’s:

• the Department of Internal Affairs states that TAB New Zealand is the only betting operator permitted to provide racing and sports betting to New Zealand customers, and that it administers the Racing Industry Act 2020;
• the same Department warns that overseas betting operators may be based where consumer protections are weak, may not address gambling harm, may not return unspent credits and may not pay out large wins;
• the same Department told providers serving New Zealand to withdraw with immediate effect after section 74AAA took effect on 28 June 2025.

Each of those is a statement the regulator made in writing, on its own page. The page reports them because they are the constraints the regulator actually publishes, and because a New Zealand bettor acting on this page needs to know what the regulator has said about the same question the page is asked to answer. None of the three is the page telling the reader what to do; each is what DIA has already said.

How the page was assembled and against what

The page covers four main areas. Cluster 2 (legality and regulation) sits in the first half of the article, because the framework decides everything that follows. Cluster 3 (responsible gambling) sits inside the legality section, where the wellbeing tools and the regulator’s warnings belong. Cluster 4 (the ranking and the comparison) sits in the second half, with the table and the ten reviews. Cluster 1 (the overview and the core facts) is the body of the page that every section borrows from. The order is the one the page makes for a New Zealand reader: the law, then the harm-minimisation tools it carries, then the market it builds, then the budget figure the cost of the market implies.

Choosing a bookmaker in New Zealand

The honest choice the page can defend is one path. Bet with TAB or Betcha, where the Racing Industry Act says the bet belongs, the regulator oversees the operator, the wellbeing tools reach the customer and the Problem Gambling Levy pays into harm minimisation. Every other brand on the page is unlicensed in New Zealand, whether or not its terms say otherwise; the offshore caveat is the page’s caveat, and the reader carries it.

A second path exists, in the sense that a New Zealand reader who chooses an offshore brand is making a choice the regulator has not approved of and cannot reach with its tools. The page does not recommend that path. The page does report each offshore brand as its own terms describe it, because hiding the brands a New Zealand reader will meet is the same as not answering the page’s question. What the page does not do is pretend the regulator’s warnings do not apply, or print a sign-up invitation, or print a promo code. The reader who wants an offshore brand goes to the brand’s own terms page with eyes open, knows the regulator’s stated risks and that is the end of the page’s role.

Where a player gets help

The free Gambling Helpline (0800 654 655, text 8006) and Safer Gambling Aotearoa are New Zealand services any reader can use, regardless of where they bet. The Problem Gambling Levy funds harm minimisation from 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2028. Self-exclusion at TAB NZ is set in the TAB NZ apps and covers TAB and Betcha. There is no New Zealand online-betting exclusion register beyond the operator’s own — the register the 2026 casino law sets up is for online casinos, not bookmakers. If a reader or someone they know is betting beyond what they can afford, the helpline is the right place to start.

A short, plain reading of the law

Section 74AAA, in force since 28 June 2025. TAB NZ and Betcha are the two online brands, one operator. Offshore brands cannot lawfully serve a New Zealand customer. The player is not the regulatory target, by section 19(4) of the Gambling Act 2003; the operator is. The regulator states specific risks for the offshore path: weak consumer safeguards, no harm-minimisation framework, no return of unspent credits, no compelled payout. New Zealand does not geo-block. The greyhound racing closure starts on 1 August 2026. The page has not named a player penalty because none has been published, and that is what the page owes the reader on that point.

Frequently Asked Questions

Not in New Zealand. Since section 74AAA of the Racing Industry Act 2020 took effect on 28 June 2025, only TAB NZ may lawfully offer racing or sports betting to a person in New Zealand. The Department of Internal Affairs told providers serving New Zealand to withdraw with immediate effect, and warns that an overseas operator may be based where consumer safeguards are weak.

How is betting on horse racing legal?

Only with TAB NZ. The Racing Industry Act 2020 makes TAB NZ the sole lawful provider of racing and sports betting in New Zealand, and Betcha is the online sister brand of the same operator. Fixed odds, pool betting, quinella, exacta, trifecta and the rest of the racing menu run through the same operator under the same licence.

Is any online sports betting legal?

Yes, through TAB NZ. The Department of Internal Affairs names TAB and Betcha as the only online brands authorised to take racing and sports bets from people in New Zealand. Any other online sportsbook taking a New Zealand customer is acting in breach of section 74AAA.

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

TAB NZ, through its two online brands, TAB and Betcha. TAB NZ is the operator under the Racing Industry Act 2020; Betcha is not a rival bookmaker. The partnership with Entain runs the operator side of TAB under a 25-year agreement signed in 2023.

Are TAB and Betcha two different bookmakers?

No. They are the two online brands of TAB NZ, one operator under one licence. They share the same self-exclusion state, the same harm-minimisation tools and the same New Zealand regulator.

Is a player punished for betting with an overseas bookmaker?

Section 19(4) of the Gambling Act 2003, inserted in 2025, says an individual may not be convicted for placing a bet with an offshore operator in breach of section 74AAA. The regulator has not published a penalty that falls on the player; the law targets the operator. The regulator’s stated warnings about weak safeguards and unpaid winnings still apply.

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