New Zealand Starts Its Auction for 15 Online Casino Licences as DIA Drafts the Testing Rules

The Department of Internal Affairs opened bidding on 29 September for the right to apply for one of up to 15 online casino licences, with a reserve price it will never disclose and no idea, it says, of what the auction will raise. Alongside it, a draft testing regime spells out what the winners will have to prove about their games and platforms.

• New Zealand's Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) began its auction for up to 15 online casino licences on Tuesday 29 September, an ascending clock auction with an unpublished reserve and a single price paid by every winner
• Winning the auction gives only the right to apply: winners must then pay the clearing price and file full applications from October, and the department expects to decide every licence by 1 June 2027 at the latest
• Operators that have not applied by 1 December 2026 must stop serving New Zealand customers, while applicants may keep operating, without advertising, until their application is decided or 1 June 2027
• Licensees will pay a 16% online gambling duty, with 4 percentage points ring-fenced for community funding, a 3.5% regulatory levy, the problem gambling levy and GST, after a NZ$19,000 (approximately $11,000) fee for each expression of interest
• A discussion draft of testing and monitoring requirements accepts game and RNG certification to UK Gambling Commission or Ontario standards at launch, building on the minimum standards in force since 8 July

Bidding Has Started, and the Department Is Saying Little About Who Is Bidding

The auction is the second of three stages set by the Online Casino Gambling Act 2026, which passed in April and came into force on 1 May. Expressions of interest opened on 17 July and closed on 14 August, and those accepted were invited to bid. "To protect the fairness and integrity of the auction, we will not be sharing final numbers or information about who is participating," the DIA told registered operators in a newsletter on 10 September, which set the start date of 29 September and said the outcome would be publicly notified. Yogonet reported that bidding is expected to run for two weeks; the DIA has not published an end date.

According to the department's auction guidance, each licence is a lot, there are up to 15, and in each round bidders say yes or no to up to five price points, with the price rising until bids match lots. After each round participants are told a rounded bid ratio, bids divided by lots, until it falls below 1.5. There is a reserve price, which "will not be disclosed at any stage"; bidders learn only whether it has been met, in the round in which the ratio first drops below 1.5. All winners pay the same price, bids are in New Zealand dollars excluding GST, and there is no auction fee and no deposit.

The guidance leaves the auction manager discretion at the end: to sell fewer than 15 lots, or to use a tie-break where more bidders remain at the final price than there are lots. No one may have significant influence over more than three licences. Each licence covers a single brand and runs for up to three years, renewable for a further five. Asked how much the auction might raise, the DIA said the government "has no specific or expected number in mind", because no online casino licences have been allocated this way before.

What Follows the Auction

Successful bidders pay the auction price and submit a full application from October, including a business plan and strategies on advertising, consumer protection, harm minimisation and compliance; the Secretary for Internal Affairs must not grant a licence unless the applicant is shown to be suitable. From 1 December 2026, providers that have not applied must stop serving New Zealanders, and those with applications pending may continue, without advertising, until a decision or 1 June 2027. "We anticipate being able to make all licence decisions by the 1st of June 2027 at the latest," the department says.

Licensees will pay GST, a 16% online gambling duty, raised from 12% with 4 percentage points ring-fenced for community funding through the Lottery Grants Board, a 3.5% levy set by regulation 47 of the Online Casino Gambling Regulations 2026, and the problem gambling levy. The duty and the 3.5% levy are charged on gambling profits, amounts received from New Zealand residents less prizes paid to them, rather than on gross gaming revenue.

The Draft Testing Rules

The DIA's draft Testing and Monitoring Requirements for Online Casino Gambling Technology, dated September 2026 and issued under section 80 of the Act, approve as test laboratories test houses approved by the UK Gambling Commission, laboratories registered with the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario, and the three facilities accredited for New Zealand's land-based market: Gaming Laboratories International Australia, Quality Assurance Laboratories and BMM Australia.

At application, operators must file a Game and RNG Register showing that every game, including live dealer games, and every random number generator has been tested by an approved laboratory, against New Zealand's rules or against the Ontario or UK standards. They must also list critical technology providers and their data centre and cloud hosting locations. On the first day of a licence, the chief executive and chief compliance officer must sign a letter confirming that all the operator's technology, including any supplied by third parties, complies. Games already certified to the Ontario or UK standards need no retest at launch, but any new game, or any change that may affect fairness, must be tested against New Zealand's requirements.

Six months after licensing, an approved laboratory must issue a Game Testing and Platform Certification covering, among other things, limit setting, breaks in play, self-exclusion, identity and age verification and customer location, repeated at least every 12 months. Operators must also run quarterly vulnerability scans and annual penetration tests, monitor live return to player, and report material incidents within five working days. The draft leaves the date from which the requirements apply blank.

An Undisclosed Reserve and No Revenue Target Put the Price in Operators' Hands

A uniform-price clock auction with a hidden reserve is designed to let demand set the price, and the DIA's refusal to name an expected figure is consistent with that. The clearing price will be the first hard valuation of a capped market taxed at 16% duty plus a 3.5% levy. If demand is thin, the reserve and the manager's discretion to sell fewer lots become the binding constraints, and fewer than 15 brands could launch. Whatever the result, the price will say more about the regime's commercial viability than any consultation has.

Accepting UK and Ontario Certification Lowers the Barrier to Launch, Not to Operate

The testing draft makes a pragmatic choice: an operator with a library certified for Great Britain or Ontario can launch without retesting it. That favours the multinational groups most likely to win lots and keeps the 1 June 2027 deadline achievable. But the obligations that follow are New Zealand's own: every new game and every fairness-affecting change is tested against local standards, the six-month platform certification reviews the harm-minimisation tools, and the chief executive signs for compliance on day one. Lenient on entry and demanding thereafter is the right order for a market that must move hundreds of offshore sites onto 15 licences in eight months.

The 1 December Deadline Is Where Channelisation Will Be Decided

Until now New Zealanders have used what the DIA calls "hundreds of overseas gambling websites". From 1 December, only operators with a pending application may continue, and only up to 15 can ultimately be licensed. The regime's success depends on the DIA's ability to enforce the prohibition against the operators that lose the auction or never enter it, under an Act with extraterritorial reach. The auction decides who gets the market; enforcement after December decides how much of it they get.

New Zealand has built a transparent route into a closed market. Whether the price that clears it is worth paying depends on how firmly the door is shut behind the winners.