Mobile betting in New Zealand 2026: what a phone can and cannot do under the new monopoly

Updated October 2026

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A punter sitting in Auckland, Wellington or Hamilton pulls a phone out of a pocket to put a bet on the Warriors, the All Blacks, the Melbourne Cup or the Blacks Caps. The phone works. The app opens. The bet lands. From the seat of the trousers, nothing looks unusual. And yet the law underneath that screen is one of the most restrictive in the developed betting world. Since 28 June 2025, only one operator group has been permitted to take online racing or sports bets from a person in New Zealand, regardless of where that operator is incorporated or what licence it holds somewhere else. Two app icons sit inside that group. Everything else is an offshore brand accepting bets the law prohibits.

This page is about what follows from that. The market is smaller than it looks, the law is sharper than a casual reader assumes, and the practical consequences for a punter — the deposit method that matters, the age check that triggers, the safer-betting tools that follow an account across brands — all hang off a single statutory change. The fact is that where a bet is placed and on which device does not change much of it. The phone is the venue. The statute is the gatekeeper.

Snapshot current as of 26 October 2026, verified against the Department of Internal Affairs’ public statement on the Racing Industry Amendment Act 2025 and the New Zealand App Store listings for the TAB and Betcha apps.

The market in one paragraph: a legal duopoly on two apps

New Zealand’s online betting market is now a duopoly held by a single operator group. Tab — the historical national tote and bookmaker — and Betcha, its online-only sister brand, sit under the same corporate umbrella, the New Zealand Racing Board, trading as TAB NZ. Both brands take bets through apps downloadable from the New Zealand App Store. Each app carries a 17+ age rating even though betting is only lawful at 18, and each offers the same deposit, withdrawal and safer-betting tooling. They are two products on one wallet, not two competitors, and the most useful piece of background for any reader is that the choice between them is about which interface sits between the bettor and TAB NZ rather than which house takes the bet.

Outside that pair, the rest of the mobile betting market exists in a different legal position. An app may take bets from New Zealand residents only at its own legal risk, and the Department of Internal Affairs has told providers serving New Zealand customers to withdraw. A reader who installs an offshore app from outside the New Zealand store — or visits a foreign-licensed site through a browser — sits outside the regulator’s complaints framework, the harm-minimisation rules and the advertising code that apply to bets placed with TAB NZ. The bets themselves are not the issue. The wrapper around the bet is.

What the statute actually changed in 2025

Section 92A of the Racing Industry Act 2020 has long restricted racing betting to TAB NZ. The Racing Industry Amendment Act 2025 extended that logic into a single line — section 74AAA — which prohibits anyone other than TAB NZ from offering racing betting, sports betting or other racing and sports betting to a person in New Zealand. The “to a person in New Zealand” wording is what closes the offshore loophole: a bookmaker licensed in Malta, Curaçao, the Comoros or Anjouan is bound by it, because the prohibition attaches to the customer’s location, not to the operator’s incorporation or the bet’s subject event. The Department of Internal Affairs communicated the change to licensed providers who had been serving New Zealand and asked them to withdraw.

There is no licence a foreign bookmaker can apply for. There is no register of licensed online bookmakers to be cleared into. The structure of the law is a prohibition, not a permission. The lawful operator group is the only one a regulator points to, by design.

What the partnership with Entain changed underneath

In 2023, TAB NZ signed a 25-year operating partnership with Entain, the global betting group that runs Ladbrokes, Coral and a long list of European brands. Under that partnership, Entain runs the day-to-day betting operation, including the technology behind the apps, while TAB NZ retains the statutory role of sole lawful betting provider. The commercial split gives Entain half of gross profits and guarantees TAB NZ at least $150m a year for the first five years, alongside a one-off $100m payment Entain pledged into the racing sector when the deal was signed. Entain also publishes the Betcha app under its own New Zealand-registered arm, Entain New Zealand Limited. The practical effect for a punter is that the two app icons share a single operator group, a single wallet and a single harm-minimisation policy, even though the bettor may only ever see the brand they downloaded.

What “lawful to bet on your phone in New Zealand” really means

A reader scanning a landing page titled “mobile betting in New Zealand” reasonably assumes the article is about which app is best. The honest answer is that the field has been narrowed down to two apps, and the rest of the comparison is about things that surround those two apps rather than the betting itself: how to install them on Android, what deposit methods work on a New Zealand-issued card, whether crypto wallets are accepted, how a self-exclusion is enforced, and what a punter loses by betting outside the monopoly. The page opens with that narrower frame and then unpacks each piece a phone user touches.

The narrower field, by app count

Two apps. That is the headline. Only one operator group may offer sports and racing betting online to a person in New Zealand, and it does so under two commercial brands. Every other name a reader meets — 22Bet, BetWinner, Paripesa, Rooster.bet, Winz.io, Megapari, SpinBetter, Betninja, Baji, Thunderpick, Boomerang Bet, Alawin, RTbet, FunBet, Golden Panda, BillyBets — is an offshore brand licensed somewhere else and not licensed in New Zealand. Some are licensed in Curaçao, some in the Comoros, some in Anjouan, some under the Tobique Gaming Commission, some under no licence that applies to New Zealand at all. The licensing details sit in research and are useful for the reader, but the point that matters on a phone is the first one: those brands have no lawful path to take a sports or racing bet from someone in New Zealand.

The narrower field, by what the apps carry

A sportsbook covered breadth-first, a betting app aimed at rugby, racing, cricket and the major European football leagues, and an operator group whose statutory role comes with public-policy obligations it cannot walk away from. The TAB app covers horse racing, harness racing, rugby union, rugby league and a long list of other sports, both pre-match and in-play, and carries racing form, Blackbook, Jockey Challenge, a Trackside live-race streaming module, and Same Race Multis, Same Game Multis, one-tap Popular Multis and a Place Extra option for runners finishing as far back as tenth in selected races. Betcha, the online-only sibling, runs the same wagering machinery under a different interface. The depth of the menu reflects the monopoly: TAB NZ is the only bookmaker with a national obligation to price every major New Zealand racing and sporting event, and that obligation shows up in the menu.

The narrower field, by who is excluded

The excluded side of the field is mostly made up of mobile-optimised websites rather than downloadable apps, which matters on Android in particular. The Play Store in New Zealand does not list most of those offshore brands; the apps in this pack are mostly reached through a mobile browser that loads their responsive site. Some offshore operators ship Android APK files, an installation format the phone warns against by default; a reader who installs one accepts whatever the unknown-source flag suggests — the malware risk is real, the legal risk is the regulator’s, and the consumer-protection risk sits with the punter. A pre-installed app on a phone keeps a separate fingerprint and a separate trust path. The lawful apps inherit the platform store’s review and rating; the offshore browser path inherits none of it.

Responsible gambling on a phone: tools that only TAB NZ has to provide

Safer-betting tooling is the part of the page where the regulated market leaves its sharpest print on the punter’s experience, and where the offshore market is, by design, thinner.

The tools inside the lawful apps

Both TAB NZ apps expose deposit limits, time-outs and self-exclusion as in-app settings. A punter who sets a weekly deposit cap at $100 cannot exceed it without first lifting the cap; an exclusion on TAB propagates to Betcha and back, because the two share an account-level exclusion system. The helpline and text number are displayed inside both apps for direct dialling and SMS — the Gambling Helpline on 0800 654 655 and the text line on 8006. That number pair is the front door to Safer Gambling Aotearoa and is what a punter reaches by tapping the in-app link, with no intermediate web search and no out-of-app navigation. The structural design is part of the package: a regulated app is mandated to put those tools a tap or two away, and that mandate is what the offshore equivalents do not have.

The tools offshore cannot promise

An offshore brand may expose a deposit-limit field and a self-exclusion button on its own terms. It has no statutory obligation to enforce them across products, no obligation to honour a New Zealand exclusion request, and no obligation to feed back to a New Zealand register. A punter who self-excludes on Betcha and then opens a BillyBets or RTbet account has started over. The offshore regulator — Curaçao, the Comoros, Anjouan — operates under its own consumer-protection regime, which is narrower than New Zealand’s in this specific case and which does not assume the consumer is in New Zealand. The pattern matters because the most useful harm-minimisation rule for a punter is the one that follows them, and only the lawful-market operator has the regulatory spine to make that work.

A statutory floor underneath the tools

The Gambling Act 2003 and the Racing Industry Act 2020 together impose a problem-gambling minimisation duty on TAB NZ and a financial levy to fund it. The current Problem Gambling Levy is 0.74% and applies from 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2028. The funding flows to treatment services and prevention work; the duty flows to product design, marketing and the in-app tools already mentioned. A reader who has never looked at the levy line on a betting receipt has nevertheless paid it, and the tiny figure is the visible scar of a regulatory architecture an offshore market does not match.

Bonuses and free bets: what a phone app actually gives a New Zealand punter

The cluster of search terms around “best mobile betting offers” reaches New Zealand readers, and the answer the regulated market gives is the operative word smaller. A free bet that pays only its winnings back, a bonus balance whose release is gated by a turnover requirement, and an accumulator insurance that refunds one leg — each is an offer the offshore market runs freely, and each is constrained or absent inside TAB NZ’s product. The reason is the same reason the market is a duopoly: the law caps who can offer betting in New Zealand, and it implicitly caps the promotional arsenal the duopoly can run.

Bonus Cash and the Mega Multi on TAB NZ

The bonus structure inside the TAB NZ app is described in the App Store listing: new customers can receive Bonus Cash that can be split across multiple bets, and the app lists a Mega Multi bonus of up to $50 in Bonus Cash when a multi of four or more legs falls short by a set number of legs. Terms apply. The Bonus Cash figure is a credit, not a withdrawal — it sits in the wallet, can be split across as many bets as the punter chooses, and its release, expiry and minimum price are operator terms a punter reads on the offer card in the app rather than in this article. No published bonus code, no headline 100% match, no capped deposit multiplier — TAB NZ’s product runs in a different register. Compared with the offshore market’s deposit-match vocabulary, the offer looks modest. It is also the only offer that aligns with the regulator’s harm-minimisation brief.

Offshore free bets and why the comparison is asymmetric

A punter who has used an offshore brand before meets the offshore vocabulary on the same page: a deposit match, a free bet token, a “risk-free” first wager whose stake is refunded as another free bet. The mechanical truth behind each is the same: the operator’s terms turn the headline into a turnover requirement, a minimum price, a deadline and a cap on free-bet winnings. Free bet is the marketing word; the operative phrase is free bet whose stake is usually not returned. New Zealand readers can see what those offers mean without taking them, because the only path to a New Zealand consumer-protection remedy runs through TAB NZ.

What that means in practice

A punter reading about offshore brand offers from a New Zealand phone sees a menu that is not theirs to take. Comparing the headline match percentages across TAB NZ and an offshore brand is a category error: only one of the two can lawfully serve the reader. The usable comparison is between Bonus Cash, the Mega Multi allowance and the everyday dividends TAB NZ runs; the rest of the promotional market is reference material for what an offshore brand offers if it were licensed, and it is not.

Mobile and app: the practical shape of a New Zealand-licensed betting app

The mobile surface area is the part of the page that touches the reader every time they bet, and the design choices differ between a regulated New Zealand product and a market-led offshore one.

The store-listed install path

The TAB app, published under the seller name New Zealand Racing Board, has been in the New Zealand App Store since 8 September 2014. Betcha’s separate app, published by Entain New Zealand Limited, first appeared on 6 August 2024. Both are listable on the New Zealand store and ship with the platform’s review, age rating and update cadence. On Android, the situation is closer to a single source: both apps have an Android build, and both depend on the Play Store’s regional distribution for New Zealand. The store presence is not a stylistic choice; it is the regulator’s preferred route, because an app on a store shelf is one the platform holder has agreed is fit for New Zealand consumers, and the alternative routes — sideloading an APK, opening a foreign-licensed site in a mobile browser — put the responsibility onto the punter.

The interface layer in plain language

TAB carries racing form, Blackbook, Jockey Challenge and live race streaming on the racing side, and a Same Race Multi, Same Game Multi, one-tap Popular Multi and Place Extra option on the wagering side. The wallet is unified across TAB and Betcha, which means a deposit on one app is available on the other after a short sync. Betcha’s interface is younger and leaner; TAB’s is the long-form product with all the racing-side tooling that has accreted over decades. The choice is essentially one of taste, and the wallet, history and exclusions follow the punter across both.

What the phone has to do before a bet is placed

Two checks at sign-up matter. The punter must be 18 or over, and account opening at TAB NZ requires a verified New Zealand address and ID. The age rule sits in section 89 of the Racing Industry Act 2020, where betting under 18 is an offence — on the punter, not the operator. The 17+ App Store rating on both apps reflects platform rules rather than the betting age, so the punter reads the in-app terms to see the actual number. The verification step is what closes the under-age loophole the platform store cannot catch on its own. A punter opening an account from a non-New Zealand address is declined at the ID stage, which is also why the offshore brands are usable to a New Zealand punter only by evading the platform’s geographic check: the same offshore brand opens routinely from a registered address elsewhere.

Why the Android APK and the “anywhere” mirror sites matter less than they sound

A reader who lands on a SpinBetter, Megapari, Paripesa or BetWinner mirror through a phone browser is in exactly the situation the law targets: the offshore operator is offering racing or sports betting to a person in New Zealand. The punter’s status under section 19(4) of the Gambling Act 2003 (as inserted in 2025) is not “illegal betting” — the section makes clear that an individual cannot be convicted for placing a bet with an offshore operator in breach of section 74AAA — and no published penalty for a player was found. The honest framing is that the operator is breaking the law and the punter is not; the regulator’s warning that unspent credits may not return and large wins may not pay out is the practical risk.

The ranking: what each operator actually does on a phone

The top ten follows TAB and Betcha first — because they are the lawful pair — and then eight offshore brands a New Zealand reader is likely to meet, each marked not licensed in New Zealand. The column headings below are New Zealand status and what the operator’s own terms state on the subject the page cares about; the cells behind them come from each brand’s own published pages and from the App Store listings. The comparison is honest about gaps: where a fact is not in the public materials, the cell stays blank rather than invented, because the reader acts on this table.

The shape of the table is the shape of the market. The two lawful brands sit at the top with a regulator-shaped column entry behind them; eight not-licensed brands follow, each with its own foreign licensing detail that confers no right to take bets from New Zealand. The reader’s actionable column is the third one, and the blank cells it carries are the real story behind a “compare 10” pitch.

TAB — the long-form racing and sports book

The TAB app is the only lawful path to New Zealand and Australian racing on a phone, and the product reflects that. The racing-side tools — Trackside live streaming, Blackbook, Jockey Challenge, form data — sit alongside the wagering menu and the wallet, so a punter who wants to study a horse and back it does both in one place. Same Race Multi and Same Game Multi run through a buildout the offshore market copied for its own variants. The Bonus Cash and Mega Multi notes on the App Store listing are the headline promotional layer; the everyday offer is the racing dividend, the boosted odds on selected runners, and the Place Extra that lets a punter pick a runner to finish up to tenth in a named race. The newer reader’s read of TAB NZ is usually that it is “the national tote” rather than a competitor to the offshore market; the practical read for a phone user is that the product does several of the things the offshore brands do, in one regulated app, behind one wallet.

For a punter who bets on New Zealand and Australian racing above all else, and who also wants a regulated harm-minimisation regime in the same app, TAB is the only fit, because it is the only option. The wagering mechanics are competitive. The customer-protection mechanics are what make the choice safer than the alternatives — though, again, the alternatives are not alternatives for betting with a New Zealand-licensed operator.

Betcha — the lighter interface on the same wallet

Betcha ships the same betting machinery under a younger, simpler interface and an Entain New Zealand Limited App Store listing. The safer-betting tools and the helpline are surfaced inside the app, and the exclusion applied on TAB is mirrored here because the two share a customer record. A punter who finds TAB’s racing-side density too much, and who bets mostly on sports rather than racing, often lands on Betcha for the cleaner menu. The regulatory basis is identical. The compliance burden is identical. The only thing that differs between the two apps is the surface.

For an Auckland or Wellington punter whose betting is mostly on Super Rugby Pacific, NRL, the English Premier League and the All Blacks rather than on racing, Betcha is the natural choice — the wagering menu is the same and the product is built around event betting rather than form-driven racing play. Same wallet, same exclusions, simpler screen.

BillyBets — mobile-optimised, not on the New Zealand store

BillyBets runs on Android and iOS through a mobile-optimised platform rather than an app on the New Zealand store. The Help Centre is open 24/7 via live chat; New Zealand appears in the country selector on the cashier page, and the only currency filter shown is Euro. A New Zealand punter who lands there can deposit, bet and withdraw, but the deposit and withdrawal run in Euro rather than in New Zealand dollars, the live chat is not staffed by a New Zealand team, and the responsible-gambling tooling the operator runs is operator-level rather than regulator-level. The fit is for a reader who has a specific reason to use an offshore brand and accepts the consumer-protection profile that comes with it.

A useful sanity check before installing: if the cashier page offers Euro as the only currency and shows New Zealand as one of many selectors, the operator is treating the deposit as one of dozens of cross-border flows rather than a New Zealand customer relationship. The terms and conditions are written for that wider audience.

Alawin — adult-only terms, no licence that touches New Zealand

Alawin accepts customers aged 18 or over per its Terms and Conditions. The age threshold is right for New Zealand, but no specific licence is published that grants the required authorisation, and the operator is not on the New Zealand App Store. A punter reading the home page sees a generic product; a punter reading the small print sees a brand whose compliance regime stops at the country that issued the licence.

For an adult reader choosing an offshore brand with an age-matched threshold, Alawin’s terms at least clear the under-18 floor. The rest of the consumer profile runs on the offshore regime, and the regulator the operator reports to does not answer a New Zealand complaint.

RTbet — Curaçao-licensed mobile sportsbook

RTbet lists a sportsbook covering football, tennis, table tennis, basketball, ice hockey, American football and baseball, with live betting and virtual sports. The mobile experience is browser-based. No Curaçao licence grants that authorisation; no New Zealand regulator or complaints body has authority over RTbet’s operations.

For a punter who wants an offshore browser-based bookmaker with a multi-sport menu and live betting, RTbet is representative of the cluster: Curaçao-licensed, single-wallet, mobile-friendly. The cost is the same cost as the rest of the cluster: no New Zealand harm-minimisation framework, no New Zealand complaints route, no New Zealand protection on the deposit or the payout.

FunBet — another multi-sport mobile bookmaker

FunBet’s sportsbook offers odds on football, ice hockey, American football, basketball, volleyball, tennis, rugby and baseball, with live betting and a self-described 24/7 bookmaker on the home page. Like RTbet, it runs through a mobile browser, not a New Zealand-stored app, and lists no licence that applies to New Zealand.

For a punter looking at multi-sport offshore brand menus side by side, FunBet is the rugby-and-American-football cluster’s representative. The read on the operator matches the read on the category: the menu is broad, the regulator is offshore, the New Zealand customer’s protection is operator-level.

22Bet — Curaçao-licensed and a wider group

22Bet is run by TechSolutions Group N.V. of Curaçao, under Curaçao licence 8048/JAZ. The same company runs 20Bet, Bizzo and National Casino, so a reader landing on any of those four brands is reading one operator under four product names. The Curaçao licence confers no right to take bets from a person in New Zealand. The Group’s mobile experience runs through apps and through the browser, and the menu is the broadest of the offshore cluster in this list. No claim to New Zealand status is made.

For a punter using any one of TechSolutions’ brands, the practical read is that the operation’s compliance regime is Curaçao’s, and Curaçao is not a New Zealand complaints body. The product is the product; the protection runs to the operator’s house rules.

Rooster.bet — Tobique-licensed, Costa Rica-registered

Rooster.bet is operated by Novatrix SRL under Tobique Gaming Commission e-gaming licence No. 0000002. The licensee is incorporated in Costa Rica; the licence issuer is the Tobique Gaming Commission. Either way, no right to take bets from a person in New Zealand is conferred, and no New Zealand regulator has authority. The operator runs as a mobile-accessible website.

For a punter who is choosing on licence geography alone, Rooster.bet’s stack — Costa Rica-incorporated, Tobique-licensed — is the cluster’s narrow end. It is also a typical example of how a regulator’s name on a licence card is not the same as New Zealand recognition of that regulator.

Golden Panda — sportsbook, esports, virtuals and prediction markets

Golden Panda’s home page lists a Sports section with a sportsbook, esports and virtual sports, alongside casino, live casino, crash games, a rewards system, cashback, a VIP Club and prediction markets. The product is broad; the regulatory position is the same as every other not-licensed brand on this list — no right to take bets from a person in New Zealand, no New Zealand regulator or complaints framework in scope.

For a punter comparing product breadth inside the offshore cluster, Golden Panda is on the broad end, but breadth is not the point on a New Zealand page. The point is that none of these products sits inside a New Zealand regulatory perimeter.

Winz.io — Anjouan and Tobique footer-licensed

Winz.io states in its footer that it holds licences delivered by Anjouan and Tobique. The footer mention is the licence signal; the operator’s compliance regime runs through those two regulators and through no New Zealand body. The mobile experience is browser-based. New Zealand customers, if any, are reached through a normal responsive site.

For a punter reading Anjouan-licensed brands, Winz.io is consistent with the cluster pattern. The mobile experience is the responsive site; the regulatory experience is the issuer’s regime, not New Zealand’s.

How odds, return and margin actually work on a phone

The mechanics of odds are not specific to New Zealand, but they are the part of the page a phone user can do arithmetic on, and the calculation in this section is the only one the law singles out for a punter to know. The cluster’s search terms suggest readers want this explained, and the explanation belongs before the comparison, not after.

Decimal odds and how a winning bet pays

A decimal price of 2.50 means a $10 stake returns $25 if the bet wins: that is stake multiplied by the price. The punter’s net profit is the $25 minus the $10 stake, so $15. The price already includes the stake in the figure shown — there is no separate “plus stake” line — which is the difference between decimal odds and the fractional odds used in older New Zealand racing copy. Every TAB NZ app screen and most offshore brands on a New Zealand punter’s phone display decimal prices; the calculation above is the one a phone user runs in their head at the betting slip.

A combination bet multiplies the prices of its legs into a single price. A three-leg multi at decimal odds 1.80, 2.10 and 3.00 pays a $10 stake at the multiplied price of 1.80 × 2.10 × 3.00 = 11.34, returning $113.40 on a win. The margin baked into each leg stacks with the multiplication, so a same-game multi carries more bookmaker edge than a straight single — a fact a punter can verify by comparing single prices with the legs of any multi on offer.

The bookmaker’s margin and what it does to a price

The bookmaker’s margin is the share of every dollar wagered that the bookmaker expects to keep on average, and it is built into the prices a punter sees. On a two-outcome market priced at 1.91 and 1.91, the implied probability of both outcomes is 1 ÷ 1.91 + 1 ÷ 1.91 = 1.047, which exceeds 1.000, and the gap above 1.000 is the margin — in this case 4.7%. A market priced at 1.95 and 1.95 carries a 2.6% margin; a market priced at 2.00 and 2.00 carries zero margin. Adding a third outcome (a draw) broadens the calculation but the structure is the same: the sum of 1 ÷ price across all outcomes exceeds 1.000, and the gap is the margin.

The punter-facing read is that the lower the margin, the more of every dollar wagered is returned across the whole market in the long run. Same-game multis and exotic bets carry higher margins because the bookmaker has less time and information to price them. Straight singles on major events carry the lowest margins, because more punters bet into them and the price moves closer to “fair”. On a phone, the easiest tell is the symmetry of the two sides on an even-money market: prices of 1.91 on both sides mean a 4.7% margin; prices of 1.95 on both sides mean 2.6%; prices of 1.99 mean 1.0%. The closer the prices sit to 2.00, the lower the margin.

Free bets and what the marketing word means

A free bet whose stake is not paid back has a real value lower than its headline. A $10 free bet at price 3.00 pays $30 if it wins — $20 profit plus the $10 stake is the headline, but the stake is the bookmaker’s, not the punter’s — and the punter’s profit is $20. Across an outcome where the implied probability is the book’s fair share, the expected return of a free bet at price p is the free-bet amount times (p minus 1) divided by p times the market’s payout share. The headline value of the free bet and its expected value are not the same number, and the operator’s house edge is the gap between them.

The marketing word free bet carries the operative phrase whose stake is usually not returned. A “risk-free” first wager is usually refunded as a free bet, not as cash, when it loses — and the refund is itself subject to a turnover requirement. A boosted odds offer is a price boost on a single leg, and the boost is usually capped at a maximum stake. An accumulator insurance refunds a stake as a free bet or as bonus credit when one leg of a multi loses. Cashback is a percentage of net losses returned as credit over a period, with its own terms. Each product is its own instrument, with its own turnover, its own minimum price and its own cap, and the marketing word is never the contract.

Inside the law: what a phone user must actually know

The legal section here is short on numbers and long on rules. The reason is that the market is so restricted that a phone user’s behaviour runs into the law on most days they bet.

Age and identification

The betting age is 18, set in section 89 of the Racing Industry Act 2020. Betting under 18 is an offence for the punter, not the operator. The 17+ App Store rating on TAB and Betcha reflects Apple’s general framework; the legally enforceable threshold sits in the racing statute. The 20+ age for land-based casinos is not the same number and never gets merged with it. Account opening at TAB NZ requires a verified New Zealand address and ID, which is the operational enforcement of the age rule and the basis on which TAB NZ keeps minors off its product.

Geo and what “a person in New Zealand” means

Section 74AAA prohibits offering racing or sports betting to a person in New Zealand, regardless of where the operator is incorporated or where the event takes place. The test is the customer’s location when the bet is offered. The geo-rule is what makes a Curaçao or Comoros licence irrelevant, and what makes offshore-brand App Store listings outside New Zealand functionally the only path to those apps on an Apple device. New Zealand does not block the offshore sites — the regulator’s website explicitly notes this — and that is the structural reason a punter can reach an offshore brand from inside New Zealand at all.

Tax and winnings

Inland Revenue’s published position is that recreational gambling winnings are generally not taxable, and prize money from TAB NZ horse, greyhound and trotting races is not taxable. A punter who bets as a business — by profession or as a trade — is a different case, and that determination sits with Inland Revenue and an accountant, not with this article. General information, not tax advice. Operator-side, TAB NZ pays the Problem Gambling Levy (0.74%), and offshore operators supplying New Zealand residents have paid online gambling duty since 1 July 2024 (12% of profits, rising to 16% from 1 January 2027); the duty being payable does not make an offer lawful, and the point-of-consumption charge on offshore racing and sports bets ceased on 30 June 2026.

Advertising

The Advertising Standards Authority’s Gambling Advertising Code applies to betting ads directed at New Zealand audiences. The code says ads must not be directed at under-14s or at the 14-to-under-18 audience, judged by context, appeal and expected audience (a 25% threshold is the trigger where accurate audience data exists). Ads must not encourage harm and must be truthful with terms available. No “whistle-to-whistle” ban equivalent exists in New Zealand, and the gambling code applies in addition to any wider ASA codes. The point for a phone user is that the ads they see in regulated spaces — TAB NZ’s own marketing, broadcast sport sponsorships — sit inside that code; the offshore ads in their social feed do not.

What this page leaves out, and where the gaps live

A complete portrait of mobile betting in New Zealand runs into the edges research cannot fill. Where the inputs carry no figure, this article writes the point in words rather than in invented digits. The places where the reader must check rather than take a number from this page are listed below.

A punter must check the operator’s own terms

The minimum price on a bonus, the deposit-limit ceiling, the withdrawal-processing window and the maximum win on a free bet are operator-level terms that change with the offer card. Reading the offer card inside the app, on the day, is the right place to confirm those values. The same is true of the wagering requirements on bonus credit, the expiry of a free bet token and the maximum stake per leg of an accumulator insurance. An offer card ages faster than any other content on this page.

A punter must check the regulator

The Department of Internal Affairs publishes the gambling legislation and the statements to providers that brought the market into its current shape. Gambling Commission notices and the Racing Industry Act updates flow through the New Zealand legislation website. A reader checking the law reads that material directly rather than trusting a third-party summary.

A punter must check the helpline

The Gambling Helpline on 0800 654 655 (text 8006) is the front door to Safer Gambling Aotearoa. The number, the text line and the in-app links are the route to a counsellor, a self-exclusion request or a problem-gambling assessment. The helpline does not depend on this article to be correct.

Frequently asked questions

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

TAB NZ takes online racing and sports bets from people in New Zealand, and does so through two app brands: TAB and Betcha. The Racing Industry Amendment Act 2025 inserted section 74AAA into the Racing Industry Act 2020, which took effect on 28 June 2025 and prohibits any other operator from offering racing or sports betting to a person in New Zealand. There is no licence a foreign bookmaker can apply for, because the statutory structure is a prohibition rather than a permission.

How is the return on a bet worked out from the stake and the odds?

In decimal odds — the format used in the TAB NZ apps and most offshore brands — a winning bet returns the stake multiplied by the decimal price. A $10 stake at price 2.50 returns $25, of which $15 is net profit. A combination bet multiplies the decimal prices of its legs into one combined price, and the same stake-multiplied-by-price formula applies to the combined figure. The stake is included in the decimal price; no separate “plus stake” line is added at the payout.

What is the bookmaker’s margin, and how is it visible in the odds?

The margin is the share of every dollar wagered that the bookmaker expects to keep on average, and it is baked into the prices. For a two-outcome market, adding 1 divided by each price gives a figure above 1.000; the gap above 1.000 is the margin in percentage terms. Prices of 1.91 and 1.91 imply a 4.7% margin; prices of 1.95 and 1.95 imply 2.6%; prices of 1.99 imply 1.0%. The closer the prices sit to 2.00 on an even-money market, the lower the margin and the more of every dollar wagered is returned across the market.

What does a player lose by betting with a bookmaker that has no New Zealand licence?

The player gives up the New Zealand regulatory framework: no TAB NZ safer-betting tools, no cross-brand self-exclusion, no recourse to a New Zealand complaints body. The Department of Internal Affairs warns that offshore operators may be in jurisdictions with minimal consumer safeguards, may not return unspent credits and may not pay out large wins. No published penalty for a player was found for betting with an offshore brand in breach of section 74AAA; section 19(4) of the Gambling Act 2003 (inserted in 2025) makes clear that an individual cannot be convicted for placing such a bet.

From what age can bets be placed with TAB NZ, and what is checked when opening an account?

The minimum betting age is 18, set in section 89 of the Racing Industry Act 2020. Account opening at TAB NZ requires a verified New Zealand address and ID. The 17+ App Store rating reflects Apple’s general framework rather than the betting age, and the in-app terms and the racing statute are the operative sources. A punter opening an account from a non-New Zealand address is declined at the ID stage; that gate is what closes the under-age and offshore-customer loopholes at the same time.

Are betting winnings taxed in New Zealand?

Inland Revenue’s published position is that recreational gambling winnings are generally not taxable, and prize money from TAB NZ horse, greyhound and trotting races is not taxable. A punter who bets as a business is a different case, and that determination sits with Inland Revenue and an accountant, not with this article. Operator-side, TAB NZ pays the Problem Gambling Levy (0.74%), and offshore operators serving New Zealand residents pay online gambling duty at 12% of profits from 1 July 2024, rising to 16% from 1 January 2027.

Prepared by the Nzlivebetting editorial staff.