Advocacy body, Health Coalition Aotearoa, has formally recognised gambling as its fourth commercial determinant of harm, alongside tobacco, alcohol, and unhealthy food.
“Gambling harm keeps whānau in poverty, widens inequality, and increasingly reaches our young people through products designed to sit in their pockets,” said Health Coalition Aotearoa interim co-chair, Jason Alexander.
“Across the Tasman, Australia is moving to tighten gambling advertising and reduce its presence around sport. Here, we seem to be heading in the opposite direction – opening the door wider to the gambling industry when we should be reducing its reach and the harm it causes.”
Health Coalition Aotearoa and the Problem Gambling Foundation are calling on government to properly regulate gambling advertising and licensing.
According to the Ministry of Health’s latest Economic and Social Costing of Gambling in Aotearoa New Zealand 2023/24 report, gambling harm costs New Zealand an estimated $4.2 billion annually, through impacts including poorer physical and mental health, financial hardship, damaged relationships and wider costs to whānau and society.
