Gambling billions flowing overseas

New Zealanders are gambling about $40 million a week on overseas websites - about 2 times what they spend on Lotto.

A Racing Board survey has found that 5.7 per cent of New Zealanders, or 177,000 people, are gambling on websites, overseas lotteries and sports betting.

They are spending $2.1 billion a year, or just under $40 million a week. That is an average of $223 a week each, although much of that is reinvested winnings.

Only $5.5 million a week is being spent on overseas racing and sports betting, with the rest on other forms of gambling.

Problem Gambling Foundation spokesman David Coom said the survey confirmed that overseas online gambling was "a really fast-growing problem".

"It's basically totally unregulated and there's no ability to do any host responsibility around it," he said.

"One of the big issues with problem gambling is that it flourishes and thrives in secrecy, and of course online you can just sit at home and access it all you like.

"We are starting to see cases come through where parents are bringing in their teenagers who are spending up to 60 hours a week online. We are just about to embark on some research with youth to see what actually is going on."

If the survey is correct, it means that about a sixth of New Zealand's total gambling spending is going overseas, paying no New Zealand taxes and returning nothing to the community.

Official figures show that New Zealanders gambled $12.9 billion within the country in the year to last June - just over $10 billion on poker machines in pubs and clubs, $1.5 billion on racing, $778 million on Lotto and $477 million in casinos.

Lotteries Commission spokeswoman Karen Jones said only 2.5 to 3 per cent of lotto sales were online.

The Racing Board's Bill Colgan said that if the money being gambled overseas was bet on local races instead it would create the equivalent of 3600 extra fulltime jobs in the racing industry.

"Many of these offshore operators are not required and do not have in place any proactive measures to minimise the harm from problem gambling," he said.

"They can and do accept credit betting and sometimes have no maximum bet limit."