Written by Yeonsoo Son
The 2023/24 New Zealand Gambling Survey paints a stark picture of escalating youth vulnerability: approximately 26,000 individuals aged 15 to 24 now fall within the moderate-to-high-risk categories for gambling-related harm (Health New Zealand, 2025). One in three secondary school students have gambled before (Rossen et al., 2013), and disturbing reports have surfaced of children as young as 11 racking up thousands in gambling debt (Craig, 2024). These are not isolated incidents but a systemic failure to protect rangatahi in a rapidly evolving risk environment.
What emerges is not only a public health concern, but a regulatory and social blind spot. Policy frameworks remain tethered to a pre-digital era, fragmented in delivery, and largely unresponsive to the technological environment shaping youth behaviour. This article examines the drivers and impacts of gambling harm among young New Zealanders, critiques the adequacy of current protections, and explores what meaningful reform could look like.
Why Do Young People Gamble?
A confluence of social, technological, and psychological forces is fuelling a surge in youth gambling across Aotearoa. One of the most insidious contributors is the erosion of boundaries between gaming and gambling. Digital gaming environments now routinely feature chance-based mechanics – loot boxes, prize wheels, and microtransactions – that mimic the psychological dynamics of gambling: randomised rewards, variable pay-out schedules, and emotional investment in “wins” (Craig, 2024). Normalising these experiences from an early age increases the likelihood of progressing into more traditional forms of gambling (Boyd et al., 2024).
Compounding this trend is the growing commercialisation of gambling through social media. Platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube have become powerful marketing vehicles for gambling operators, allowing direct engagement with young audiences through influencer partnerships and viral content. In Aotearoa, the New Zealand TAB and its youth-focused offshoot, Betcha, have embraced these tactics – leveraging meme culture, gamified content, and lifestyle branding to build appeal to the youth demographic (Mathias, 2024). This form of marketing often bypasses conventional age-gating mechanisms and embeds gambling within the everyday digital landscape under the guise of entertainment or community.
Social and family environments reinforce these risks. Adolescents who witness gambling within their homes are more likely to view the practice as routine and acceptable. Peer influence intensifies this vulnerability. For many, gambling becomes a social activity, a form of bonding or bravado among friends, especially in online spaces where financial consequences feel abstract (Rossen, Butler, & Denny, 2011). These quiet yet powerful forces mask the gambling risks, allowing harmful behaviours to take root.
Beyond the Dollars – The Impact of Youth Gambling
The growing accessibility of gambling and its increasing presence in young people’s digital and social worlds are especially alarming, given that the consequences stretch far beyond financial loss. Gambling during adolescence can inflict deep and lasting harm on mental, emotional, and social well-being. Young people who engage in problematic gambling are significantly more likely to experience anxiety, depression, and distress, with mounting evidence linking gambling harm to increased rates of suicidal ideation (Moreira, Azeredo & Dias, 2023).
Furthermore, gambling initiated during adolescence is a strong predictor of chronic gambling problems in adulthood (Moreira et al., 2023). What may begin as impulsive or socially driven risk-taking can solidify into entrenched patterns of harm with lifelong consequences. Over time, these behaviours risk being passed down and perpetuated across generations. This cycle elevates youth gambling from a personal issue to a serious, intergenerational public health concern. Policy responses, therefore, must move beyond narrow regulatory fixes and confront the deeper conditions that make gambling appealing and accessible to vulnerable rangatahi.
A Regulatory Regime Stuck in the Past
Yet Aotearoa’s regulatory framework remains outdated in rapidly evolving digital gambling landscapes. The Problem Gambling Foundation said that despite its original intent, the Gambling Act 2003 no longer offers adequate protection in an era shaped by digital convergence and algorithmic targeting (Craig, 2024). Conceived before the rise of smartphones and social media, the Act focuses narrowly on physical venues and legacy gambling formats.
While it sets age limits – 18 for Instant Kiwi, TAB betting, and pokie machines, 20 for casinos, and none for Lotto games (beyond parental consent for prizes over $1,000) – these thresholds are increasingly disconnected from contemporary youth gambling behaviour. Rangatahi are not walking into casinos; they are gambling on their phones.
The Cabinet has acknowledged this policy lag by moving to regulate online casino gambling (Velden, 2024). However, critical protections, such as robust age verification systems and built-in harm minimisation tools, remain under development. Until these mechanisms are operational and enforced, young people will continue to navigate a borderless gambling ecosystem.
Equally concerning is the lack of structured, nationwide gambling education in schools. Although programmes like Tūturu – a collaboration between the NZ Drug Foundation and the Problem Gambling Foundation – are beginning to offer evidence-based resources to improve student awareness and resilience, most schools still operate without formal curriculum content on gambling harm (New Zealand Drug Foundation, 2024). This leaves rangatahi poorly equipped to recognise the risks of gambling or navigate the increasingly blurred lines between gaming, betting, and entertainment. Without national guidance or curriculum mandates, the responsibility for addressing these issues falls to individual schools, many of which lack the resources to respond effectively.
Policy Solutions: Where to From Here?
Reducing gambling harm among rangatahi requires more than piecemeal regulation. It calls for a comprehensive public health approach that acknowledges the structural, cultural, and digital contexts shaping youth behaviour.
A critical starting point could be reforming digital regulation. Despite the challenges posed by rapid and complex technological change, policy responses should address known risk factors with evidence-based interventions. For example, policymakers may wish to consider expanding advertising standards to restrict gambling promotion on platforms heavily used by under-25s. In parallel, establishing a dedicated regulatory agency with an explicit mandate to oversee digital gambling, particularly across social media, could help fill significant gaps in current oversight.
However, regulation alone is unlikely to be sufficient. Complementary efforts within the education system can help build long-term prevention capacity. Rather than focusing narrowly on financial risks or individual choices, school-based programmes will be more effective if they address the broader psychological and social drivers of youth gambling. Research shows that interventions are most effective when participatory, holistic, and culturally grounded, emphasising digital literacy in ways that resonate with rangatahi.
Honouring Te Tiriti o Waitangi: Indigenous-Led Solutions
Culturally responsive approaches must also include a genuine commitment to te Tiriti o Waitangi. This is not a supplementary concern – it is essential for a just and effective public health response. Māori continue to experience disproportionate harm from gambling, a reality rooted in colonisation, which has undermined the self-determining rights of hapū and imposed Western health models that often fail to serve Māori communities (Palmer du Preez, Lowe, Mauchline, Janicot, Henry, Garrett, & Landon, 2020).
A Tiriti-consistent response necessitates structural change. The Health and Disability System Review (2020) recommended resourcing the Māori Health Authority (Te Aka Whai Ora) to commission, design, and deliver gambling harm reduction services based on kaupapa Māori frameworks. However, the recent legislation (Pae Ora Disestablishment of Māori Health Authority Amendment Act 2024) disestablishing Te Aka Whai Ora highlights the fragility of Maori-led health institutions within existing political structures. Rather than diminishing the case for reform, this reinforces the urgent need for developing enduring structures that supports a whānau-centred model of care grounded in whanaungatanga (relational connection), wairua (spiritual well-being), and mana whakahaere (self-stewardship). This approach is vital given the evidence that Māori-led addiction and harm reduction approaches are significantly more effective when they honour collective, intergenerational wellbeing and centre Māori worldviews (Graham & Masters-Awatere, 2020).
Conclusion
The rise in youth gambling harm reflects more than a gap in individual responsibility – it reveals a collective failure of systems designed to protect. While no single intervention will eliminate risk, this article identifies that meaningful change begins by recognising that behind every statistic is a story, a whānau, a community. As digital environments continue to evolve, so too must our policies. Crucially, the response to youth gambling harm is not just a matter of regulation, but a matter of heart – and of our willingness to meet the urgency of this issue with the compassion it demands.
References
Boyd, S., Li, M., Palmer, G., & Tuifagalele, R. (2024). Under the radar—A rapid review of recent literature about youth problem gambling. New Zealand Council for Educational Research. https://doi.org/10.18296/rep.0066
Craig, B. (2024, July 3). Unregulated online gambling attracting children, harm prevention agency says. Radio New Zealand. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/521199/unregulated-online-gambling-attracting-children-harm-prevention-agency-says
Graham, R., & Masters‐Awatere, B. (2020). Experiences of Māori of Aotearoa New Zealand’s public health system: A systematic review of two decades of published qualitative research. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 44(3), 193–200. https://doi.org/10.1111/1753-6405.12971
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Moreira, D. N., Azeredo, A., & Dias, P. (2023). Risk factors for gambling disorder: A systematic review. Journal of Gambling Studies. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10899-023-10188-1
New Zealand Drug Foundation. (2024, December 18). New programme to help protect youth exposed to gambling hidden in online gaming. https://drugfoundation.org.nz/articles/new-programme-to-help-protect-youth-exposed-to-gambling-hidden-in-online-gaming
Pae Ora (Disestablishment of Māori Health Authority) Amendment Act 2024. https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2024/0005/latest/whole.html
Rossen, F. V., Butler, R., & Denny, S. (2011). An exploration of youth participation in gambling and the impact of problem gambling on young people in New Zealand. Centre for Gambling Studies, Auckland UniServices Limited, The University of Auckland. https://www.fmhs.auckland.ac.nz/assets/fmhs/faculty/ahrg/docs/Youth07-Gambling-Report.pdf
Rossen, F. V., Fleming, T., Lucassen, M., Denny, S., Peiris-John, R., Teevale, T., Crengle, S., Robinson, E., Bullen, P., Dyson, B., Fortune, S., Utter, J., Sheridan, J., Clark, T., & The Adolescent Health Research Group. (2013). The health and wellbeing of New Zealand secondary school students in 2012: Youth gambling. The University of Auckland. https://www.health.govt.nz/system/files/2018-05/youth12-gambling-final-report.pdf
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