The Department of Internal Affairs of New Zealand has successfully initiated the first step of its new procedure for obtaining an online casino license by calling for operators who want to apply for the one of the fifteen available licenses in the country’s new regulated iGaming market.
Operators must send in their applications to the Government Electronic Tenders Service no later than August 14, and the application fee is NZD 19,000 (USD 11,082).
The underlying parameters of the system which is set to be used by applicants stipulate that applicants must only ask for three licenses as a maximum, which means that applicants must display that they have NZD 7.5 million (USD 4.38 million) of capital at their disposal.
Applicants also need to provide the required identity verification documents together with a credit report, a criminal record verification and proof of financial capacity together with information about potential past breaches of local regulations and conflicts with the law.
One of the participants expected to join the newly granted online casino operators is Entain which has expressed its intention to apply for as many licenses as possible – that is three.
The licensing system has been introduced by the Online Gambling Act for the purpose, which created the legal framework for regulating online casino activity in New Zealand for the first time.
Although some operators had pushed for a faster market launch, regulators have indicated that the timetable reflects New Zealand’s focus on thorough operator assessments, consumer protection measures, and gambling harm prevention before allowing online casino services to begin.