The machines, in Timezone entertainment areas at two tenpin bowling halls in Auckland and a mall in Christchurch, have shocked gambling experts who say they are grooming children and teenagers for poker machines, which they can play legally from age 18.
But the company that operates them, Coin Cascade, says they are quite different from gambling because players play with electronic cards and win tickets for more games, not cash. The ultimate prizes are mainly lollies and soft toys.
Real pokie machines are segregated in separate R18 rooms at both the Auckland venues, Xtreme Entertainment sites at Target Court in Glenfield and at the Botany Town Centre.
An Internal Affairs Department spokesman said the machines' legality was "not that clear-cut".
"The Gambling Act certainly says gambling means winning 'money' but it also says money includes 'money's worth'," he said.
"The department is concerned about the harm that gambling can have on people, their families and their communities, and we are investigating the games complained of to determine whether they involve gambling and are gaming machines in terms of the Gambling Act 2003."
Professor Peter Adams of Auckland University's Centre for Addiction Research said the "win big" ticket games such as Wheel of Fortune were a "low potency" form of gambling, but encouraged young people to transition into more addictive gambling for real money when they turned 18.
"The concern would be that the actual machine itself imitates many of the aspects of a poker machine," he said. "You are working off a console, and it's a mixture of luck and skill. The whole idea of prizes, and even the extent to which numbers appear on the screen, does imitate the real pokies.
"As a potential grooming space, that would be a concern, and the targeting of young people into that particular game is occurring in a venue which is presumably making a lot of money out of their pokies."
Dr Maria Bellringer of AUT University's Gambling and Addictions Research Centre said the machines encouraged people to start gambling at a young age. "The younger they start, the greater the likelihood that they will develop problems with gambling in later life," she said.
Coin Cascade managing director Gary Walker said youngsters were playing the games for fun, not for the cheap prizes being offered.
"Young kids are coming here with their parents. Everyone is having a go," he said. "The biggest-selling offer in games is $10 for one hour of game play but no tickets, except 30 tickets that come with the card. Parents find it very expensive to come here, so one hour for as many games as you can play gives them a guarantee that they are only going to spend $10."
He said the amusement machines' popularity was declining because young people could now access much more potent games online, and there were only three Wheel of Fortune machines in the country.
