Mental health minister Matt Doocey says it's "not good enough" the Ministry of Health can't prove its problem gambling strategy works.
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey said “it’s not good enough” the Ministry of Health can’t show its problem gambling strategy works. David Fisher reports.
A high-powered commission has castigated the Ministry of Health for trying to take $92 million off the gambling industry to pay for problem gambling solutions, when it can’t prove the solutions actually work.
The nation’s independent gambling regulator, the Gambling Commission, has issued a damning report into the Ministry’s approach, saying it was “impossible to judge whether the services actually reduced gambling harm”.
The report recommended mental health minister Matt Doocey and internal affairs minister Brooke van Velden reject the Ministry’s request to increase a levy on the gambling industry from $76 million to $92m over the next three years.
The increase - which was declined - led to claims the Ministry was trying to paper over restructuring costs by doubling the amount of money going into its own offices, up from $3.5m to $7m.
The Commission’s expert reviewer Dr David Rees said of the funding: “We don’t know if it’s enough, we don’t know if it’s too much. And that’s a point made by a number of people. A lack of data, a lack of understanding, we don’t know what’s working, we don’t know what’s not working.”
Minister of Mental Health Matt Doocey said: “It’s not good enough and it’s symptomatic of what happened under the last government.”
Doocey said in mental health and addiction services increased funding had led to “no material difference”.
Doocey and van Velden last month announced the levy would be $81m over three years - down $11m on what the Ministry of Health had said it needed.
The levy is paid by those running pokie machines, casinos, sports betting and Lotto - it’s effectively a way for the gambling industry paying for some of the harm it causes.
It is yet to include online gambling, which the government will open up with 15 licences next year.
Doocey announced the levy last month, saying the “refreshed” and “updated” strategy would come with a built-in independent review that would report back next year “to track what’s working, and what’s not”.
“When we put a strategy together we want to know it’s fit for purpose and it has been independently evaluated and it will deliver what it says it will.”
The highly critical Gambling Commission report, and Matt Doocey’s criticism of the Ministry follow years of the Commission trying to get proof of efficacy from the Ministry for its programmes.
In 2019 the Commission asked the Ministry to review its strategy to prevent gambling harm, and provide evidence it worked when it came back in three years for the triennial setting of the levy.
The Ministry didn’t - so in 2022, when the Commission recommended a levy at $76m over three years, it told the Ministry it needed to do “a major strategic review of its problem gambling strategy”.
This year the Ministry headed into the latest levy-setting exercise again having not carried out a review.
It nevertheless asked the Commission - currently led by barrister Susan Hughes KC - to increase the levy on the gambling industry to $92m: “This extra investment will help address persistent gambling harm, health inequities, and service gaps” it said.
The Gambling Commission called this approach “unacceptable” and said the Ministry should be exercising restraint by asking for the “minimum levy necessary rather than increasing it in a manner that is inconsistent with the current financial climate”.
It also said it “cannot endorse a significant increase in expenditure when it is not clear that the Ministry’s approach is working or that the sum sought is appropriate”.
It said the Ministry had failed to provide evidence its strategy “achieved the most basic outcome of preventing and minimising harm”.
It was also critical of the Ministry’s repeated cuts to spending on evaluation and research since 2019 - and its plan to continue to spend less through to 2028 despite “an ongoing information vacuum”.
“There is simply no research to indicate the Ministry’s expenditure is making a difference,” its report to Ministers said.
The Gambling Commission’s report to Cabinet included data showing spending on gambling increased from $2b in 2013/14 to almost $2.8b in 2023/24, during which time the number of people seeking help fell from 6525 to 3615.
Over that period, the Commission said the level of harm measured in the community hadn’t changed.
It also emerged the Ministry’s sought-after increase included doubling funding to its own offices from $3.5m to $7m.
Advice to the Commission from experts Synergia Consulting said part of the Ministry’s bid was difficult to justify because it related to “internal issues created by the health restructuring rather than any needs within the gambling harm sector”.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Health said its strategy relied on “a full range of evidence-based public health and clinical services” that was “informed by international and local research”.
It said the strategy included targeted funding for a research programme that would provide more evidence for decision-making.
The spokesperson said operating costs for the Ministry and Health NZ had risen from $3.5m in the previous levy period to $5.3m in the current levy period.
The Health Promotion Agency had been folded into Health NZ, adding costs, they said.
The spokesperson said the levy was being used for activities related to the problem gambling strategy as required under law - and so taxpayer money intended for health was not being spent on problem gambling.
Last month, the Ministry released a new standard for data collection for gambling providers updating the “outdated” existing system that “needs to be replaced as it is no longer fit for service or supported”.
Pokies went from pulling in $806m to $1.04bn over the decade to 2024 but Lotto was the big mover, jumping from $463m to $768m.
“Pokies” soak up around 40% of spending on gambling and have the largest share of gambling across the industry with an obligation to return profits through community grants.
Pub Charity Ltd, which operates pokies in pubs and bars and distributes $45m, was among operators criticising the Ministry’s approach to harm reduction.
Managing director Martin Cheer said the increase in the levy would leave Pub Charity Ltd with about $200,000 less to distribute to community and sporting organisations.
“[The Ministry] has been doing the same thing for 20 years and produced no tangible outcome - and they’ve turned up and asked for more money.”
Cheer said few people in the wider population suffered serious gambling harm and a broad public health strategy didn’t work.
Of those with a serious issue, he said: “They’re addicts. Some people are vulnerable. If you put 1000 people in a room and two people have a problem, I’d be looking at those two people and not the whole room.”
He said trying to manage problem gambling across the whole population was like “trying to boil the ocean”.
A Lotteries Commission said it supported the Ministry’s gambling harm strategy, recognising “some harm does occur for a small number of our customers”. A spokesperson also endorsed the introduction of the “modern client management system to treatment providers, which could increase visibility and understanding of problem gambling in the community”.
When the Herald asked the Problem Gambling Foundation about the Ministry’s failure to produce evidence, its chief executive Melissa Thompson said there was data supporting its efforts - in submissions made by the gambling industry.
Thompson would not comment directly on the Commission’s criticism of the Ministry of Health - its source of funding. She said she believed the Foundation produced good evidence showing that its work was effective.
Asked about its success with the government offering 15 online gambling licences next year, she said a “robust regulatory environment” was critical.
“We’re endlessly hopeful that advocating and providing good evidence will result in good decisions. We’d rather see no gambling whatsoever but that’s not the reality of the situation.”
David Fisher is based in Northland and has worked as a journalist for more than 30 years, winning multiple journalism awards including being twice named Reporter of the Year and being selected as one of a small number of Wolfson Press Fellows to Wolfson College, Cambridge. He joined theHeraldin 2004.