Young people, especially young men, are being targeted by online gambling platforms with advertising, according to students and anti-gambling organisations. Photo / Getty Images
By Serena Solomon of RNZ
Online sports betting started out well for Jun Leong, a 19-year-old University of Auckland student studying accounting and finance.
A year ago, he was making an extra $50 a week betting on the NBA and UFC. The income from his side hustle didn’t go to living the high life. It just meant extra chicken from Pak’nSave, stretching out his $350 weekly student allowance.
But, as the story typically goes, the house, or in this case, the online betting platform, always wins, and Leong began losing money.
“Because of that, I thought it was a good idea to take out $1000 from my student loan and try and recoup my cost, and that didn’t go so well,” he says, adding that pulling money from his student loan was an idea suggested by other students who also bet online.
He managed to get himself off the betting apps. He also deleted almost all his social media accounts, partly because of the relentless advertising from sports betting platforms and online casinos.
“But looking back on that, I think I was just immature, and I just have to own up to it.”
Leong isn’t alone in his struggle with online gambling. Online casinos and sports betting platforms like the TAB’s betcha, are targeting young people, particularly young men, through relentless advertising. Besides online advertisements, gambling apps use social media influencers and athletes to attract the next generation of gamblers.
While some of the new recruits manage to keep it as a fun hobby, others descend into problematic use, a behaviour that is becoming increasingly prominent in New Zealand’s university life, according to students and anti-gambling groups. In response, a Bill was introduced to Parliament last year aimed at regulating the reach and influence of online gambling platforms.
Online gambling is evident on campus, with students seen checking their apps between or in classes, says Nimish Milan Singh from the Auckland University Student Association. Just this week, a student called him to vent about his flatmate’s gambling with rent money. Others have reported betting their entire weekly student allowance.
“Many students say they are flooded with ads or that gambling is being packaged as part of normal student culture.”
Singh was watching football highlights on his phone one night this week, and an advertisement for a sports betting app popped up, offering him $100 to bet with if he signed up.
“When those ads are sitting right next to the sports content that students are already watching, it really blurs the line between entertainment and betting.”
When students are already engaged in watching sport, the leap to bet on a game or a fight isn’t so big, he said. And then there are the online casinos, often registered as offshore companies, that aren’t sport-related.
It isn’t just university students who are becoming embroiled in gambling. One in five New Zealand adults are affected at some time in their life by their own gambling or the gambling of others, according to the Ministry of Health.
Research shows there is a well-trodden path for teenagers with “loot boxes” in video games (an in-game purchase that might give you, say, a randomly selected weapon) or blind boxing (where items such as Labubus are purchased in-store as a “lucky dip”).
Leong, the University of Auckland student, says he first gambled in high school by making small bets with his friends using cash.
An increasing number of young men have sought help for gambling from Asian Family Services, a national support organisation, says chief executive Kelly Feng. Isolation, combined with extra finances on hand that were saved to settle in a new country, put new migrants at risk.
“Within the first two to five years, not knowing local or building that stronger connection with family and communities – that’s a bit of a high-risk period.”
The Māori public health organisation Hāpai Te Hauora launched its own anti-gambling advertising campaign in 2025 to counteract the influence of gambling platforms in Māori and Pasifika communities, where young men are often the target.
“A lot of them don’t actually know that sports betting is even gambling,” says Hāpai’s chief operating officer Jason Alexander.
“They think it’s just harmless fun, which is what it’s sort of been painted to be by the gambling sector, but it is obviously quite an addictive and harmful product, so we’re calling for it to be treated the same as we do with tobacco, alcohol, all these other harmful products.”
The coalition Government introduced the Online Casino Gambling Bill last year. It proposes prohibiting online gambling operators, including those based offshore, from operating or advertising in New Zealand without a licence. The number of licences available would be limited to 15.
Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour told RNZ’s First Up this week that the bill goes hand in hand with personal responsibility.
“We are talking here about university students who are receiving a huge amount of taxpayer money on the basis that they are smart and have a future that we should invest in as taxpayers.”
Labour criticised the bill for failing to include more provisions for harm reduction while doing little to protect New Zealand consumers.
Besides asking for strong regulation in the online gambling space, Andree Froude from the Problem Gambling Foundation is encouraging parents to talk to their children about gambling before they head to university and even while they are in high school. The organisation offers free counselling to help those with a gambling problem.
“It’s really easy for them to get hooked into it,” Froude told RNZ’s First Up.
“Once they do become addicted, it can become problematic really quickly.”