TAB New Zealand racing betting slips. Photo / Richard Robinson
In part two of his four-part series, Gregor Paul looks at New Zealand’s complicated relationship with sports betting.
The sports betting industry is supposedly governed by chance and is a world where luck, a bit of homework and gut-feel can make winners out of everyone.
But it’s not really about that at all. It’s about ultra-detailed statistical analysis, algorithmic maths and enticing advertising which weight the odds heavily in favour of the TAB.
The statistics tell the real story. Last year, the TAB posted total betting and gaming revenue of $2.9 billion, confirming it is the one, consistent winner in the sports betting industry.
The rest of the statistics are more shocking and illustrate that sports betting and the wider gambling industry produces significantly more losers than it does winners.
Inside the complicated history of sports betting in New Zealand
A survey in 2018 found that 76,000 New Zealand citizens aged 15 and older were at moderate to high risk of harm from gambling.
The same survey found that 60 per cent of problem gamblers are likely to relapse and return to harmful habits, while the Department of Internal Affairs estimates that on average Kiwis spend $80 a year on sports and race betting and 26 per cent of those who did gamble on sports and horse races are at risk of experiencing harm.
And for some gamblers, that harm can be truly destructive with the impact still being felt years later.
Andree Froude, marketing and communications director for the Problem Gambling Foundation (PGF), says: “People [when they come to us for help] have often hit rock bottom.
“They may have lost their house, significant amounts of money. They may have committed fraud, lost relationships and be suffering from poor mental health. I could go on.
“The impact is massive and it can stay with a family inter-generationally because the flow-on effect is huge, especially if you have lost a family home or got yourself into significant debt and that effects so many people.”
What particularly concerns the PGF, is that gambling is a growth industry – one that is being strongly driven by the proliferation of offshore online gambling sites which offer amongst other things unregulated and easy access to gaming, sports betting and casino apps.
And it was an industry helped no end by Covid, which proved a fertile time to cultivate new gamblers given the isolation and paucity of things to do.
“We do know that people get into trouble sports betting and TAB betting online,” says Froude. “And we are starting to see more of that. We saw more bets placed on TAB products and the data that was collected over that time (lockdown) from the health and lifestyle survey said that about 27 per cent of New Zealanders over the age of 16 took part in online gambling in 2020.”
The recent deal between the TAB and the UK betting conglomerate Entain is also growing fears that the number of people being hurt by gambling will increase in the coming years, with Froude suggesting that younger people will be at particular risk of being pulled in by the entity’s greater digital presence.
“In the Ministry of Health strategy to prevent and minimise gambling harm, they have identified young people as a priority group,” says Froude.
“We take it seriously when we think young people are going to become the next demographic of problem gamblers, you can see how they get targeted by these online operators.
“Online gambling is so easy to hide and research tells us that online gamblers are almost twice as likely to be at risk of some level of gambling related harm.
“It’s fast, quick, easy to access and people do lose a lot of money quite quickly.”
But TAB managing director Cameron Rodger says that not only did the deal with Entain include $5 million of investment aimed specifically at harm minimisation, but that it’s also not good business for his organisation to encourage or promote reckless gambling.
“There is a real misconception that what we try to do is win as much business from customers as possible,” he says.
“It’s not how we operate or think. We want a customer base that is sustainable, because that is what is best for them and for us.
“We want you to be a customer for many years and we want you to do it in a way that is for entertainment and adding value to your experiences.
“There is a misconception we are trying to do something other than that and the best way to ensure we have sustainability is to make sure customers are using things like deposit limits and taking breaks.”
Rodgers says that $4m will be invested in fast-tracking the roll-out of facial recognition technology at TAB venues – a tool that is universally agreed to be the most effective at identifying potential problem gamblers.
“What facial recognition unlocks is being able to identify customers that you may need to know about who are in your venue,” says Rodger.
“Customers who may want to self-exclude or who have self-excluded in the past. They may be a customer who the venue wants to know about because they have seen signs of harm before.”
The other main fear the PGF has in relation to the Entain deal, is the increased budget it will generate for more high-profile marketing and advertising.
Under current regulations the TAB can advertise on prime-time TV – offering cash inducements for people to open accounts – and it can also update viewers on the odds minutes before a major sports match is broadcast live.
Froude believes that tighter regulation would lead to less harm. “We would like to see a lot more restrictions around the advertising of gambling and bring it in line with alcohol advertising.
“It just normalises it for younger people and it should be restricted as it is an age-restricted product that they are offering.
“It really does encourage people to open an account and start gambling. The gambling industry is always saying gamble responsibly, but what does that even mean?
“How do you gamble responsibly? That term to us means nothing.”
Rodgers doesn’t believe that TAB advertising is intrusive or aggressive in comparison with other countries.
And he argues that part of the reason for that is the TAB’s monopoly status as the only licensed, domestic sports betting provider.
“I don’t think our advertising is over the top or intrusive in every part of society that you might see in other jurisdictions,” he says.
“An important part of why that is, is because we have one operator here. What you find in the UK, where you have many hundreds of operators all fighting to get over the top of each other, it becomes intrusive.
“We are really fortunate here and I don’t think we talk about it enough, that we can have a sports betting business that people can access and the majority of the money goes back to the community. It’s not in your face every day and I think that is important to recognise.”
The TAB, as Rodgers states, returned $12.6m to national sports organisations last year.
But while that money will be re-invested in community sport, Froude says it’s important not to focus on where it is distributed but from where it has come.
“Yes, it is going to community sports groups but the money is often coming from people who can least afford to be losing it.
“We need to be really careful about saying because it goes to support sport, a lot of it comes from people who are experiencing harm from gambling.”
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