Loizos Michaels convinced people to "think big" and believe in his investment plans - before he fleeced them of more than $3 million, a court has heard.

Te Puni Korkiri says it is happy with the performance of a Whanau Ora fund despite an evaluation which found $7.7 million has been distributed to families without the results being measured.

The former chief executive of Christchurch Casino had plans to take over SkyCity with backing from National Party president Peter Goodfellow, says an alleged conman.

Two senior National Party figures were involved in plans to apply for a casino licence, an alleged conman says.

What's protecting the pokie industry from reform is that it props up respectable New Zealand, writes Brian Rudman. Everything from grand opera to Girl Guides to pony clubs.

The mother who left her five children in a van in a SkyCity Casino carpark while she and her partner gambled hopes to become a social worker.

A mother who abandoned five children in a van in the SkyCity carpark wants to become a social worker, a court has been told.

The question everyone is asking at Auckland City Hospital is: Who bought the $2 million Lotto ticket?

New Zealand's most popular sports have taken nearly $1 billion in gambling proceeds in the last seven years, records show.

Global cheating syndicates trying to swindle millions of dollars with hi-tech gadgets are responsible for some of the hundreds of crimes committed at SkyCity each year.

He's young, single, cares about the planet ... and he's $27 million richer than he was last week.

A Tauranga man in his twenties, who describes himself as a "typical Kiwi bloke", has today claimed the $27 million Big Wednesday First Division prize package.

Rumours are spreading like wildfire around Tauranga today about the supposed winner of last night's $27 million Big Wednesday jackpot.