Offshore gambling sites fake official New Zealand web addresses

Thirteen offshore gambling sites have been found to be using New Zealand website addresses, with one even using the country's coat of arms.

Offshore gambling sites fake official New Zealand web addresses

These sites have “.nz” in their web addresses but are not operating in New Zealand nor have they been regulated within the country.

Only Lotto and TAB have approval to run gambling products in New Zealand.

The Department for Internal Affairs (DIA) will continue to monitor the situation and check for illegal operators using its web addresses.

The review is expected to be finished by next year.

DIA’s Director, Chris Thornborough, said: “One of the sites we contacted was brazen enough to use the government’s official coat of arms.

“We can only presume this was done to suggest some sort of formal connection with the New Zealand government or our local gambling laws.”

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Nathan Joyes
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Nathan Joyes is a journalist who served as a Staff Writer at Gambling Insider from October 2018 to October 2019. During his time with the publication, he reported on key developments across the global gambling and iGaming sectors, covering news, regulatory updates and industry trends for both the Gambling Insider website and associated print titles.

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