Gambling help in New Zealand

• Gambling Helpline: 0800 654 655 or text 8006, 24 hours a day. It offers phone counselling, crisis support and referrals to face-to-face counselling, Gamblers Anonymous groups and other services near you. You can text anonymously, and the helpline can call you back discreetly.
• Specialist lines from the Gambling Helpline, all open 24/7: the Māori Gambling Helpline on 0800 654 656, the Pasifika Gambling Helpline on 0800 654 657, the Gambling Debt Helpline on 0800 654 658 and the Youth Gambling Helpline on 0800 654 659. Specialist counsellors aren't always on shift, but you can be transferred to one when available or arrange a call back.
• PGF Services (Problem Gambling Foundation): 0800 664 262, text 5819 or email help@pgf.nz, 8.30am to 5pm, Monday to Friday. Free and confidential counselling, including face to face, and you're welcome to bring whānau or a support person.
• Asian Family Services: the Asian Helpline on 0800 862 342, 9am to 8pm, Monday to Friday. Free and confidential support in languages including Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, Vietnamese, Japanese, Thai and Hindi.
• Safer Gambling Aotearoa: this Health New Zealand programme lists gambling harm services near you at safergambling.org.nz. The services it lists are contracted by Health New Zealand to give free and confidential support.

Signs of gambling harm can be hard to spot. Ask yourself whether any of these sound familiar:

• You try to win back money you've lost by gambling more.
• You hide your gambling or lie about it.
• You spend more than you can afford, even after setting a limit.
• You borrow money to gamble.
• You lose track of time while gambling.
• You feel guilty, anxious or low about your gambling, or your sleep and mood change.
• You gamble to escape stress or loneliness.
• You lose interest in other things or neglect your responsibilities.

Any of these can point to gambling harm. Safer Gambling Aotearoa has a short, anonymous test your gambling tool.

Self-exclusion is a formal request to be kept out of gambling, at a venue or on a site, for a set period.

• Casinos and pokie venues. Tell the staff at the casino or pokie venue that you want to exclude yourself. The venue must, by law, exclude you, and if you then enter the gambling area, both you and the venue can be fined. A local counsellor or your local multi-venue exclusion coordinator can help, including with excluding yourself from several venues.
• TAB and Lotto NZ. TAB lets you take a break from your online account or exclude yourself from online and in-person betting. Lotto NZ lets you block yourself from online games or from buying Lotto in shops.
• Online casinos. Most online casino accounts offer time-outs and self-exclusion. Once online casinos are licensed under the Online Casino Gambling Act 2026, each must let you choose your own exclusion period, including indefinitely, must not let you shorten it, and must exclude you within 24 hours.
• One request per site, for now. There's no national exclusion register for online casinos yet, so excluding yourself at one site doesn't cover others. The Act requires the Minister to recommend regulations for a national register by 1 December 2027, and the DIA hasn't said when the register will start.

• Set limits before you start. Decide how much time and money you can afford, and use the site's deposit and time limits. Licensed online casinos will have to offer limits on time, deposits and spend, and make you wait at least 24 hours to raise or remove one.
• Block gambling sites. Blocking software such as BetBlocker, Gamban or Gamblock, or your browser's own settings, can stop gambling sites opening on your devices.
• Ask your bank. Some New Zealand banks, including ANZ, Westpac and Kiwibank, let customers block card payments to gambling sites.
• Don't gamble on credit. Gambling with a credit card is likely to create debt, and licensed online casinos won't be allowed to accept credit cards. Use a debit card with limits, and don't save your card details on gambling sites.

Gambling harm affects whānau, friends and colleagues too. The Gambling Helpline takes calls from family and friends worried about someone's gambling, and the Gambling Debt Helpline supports partners and family as well as the person gambling. PGF Services welcomes whānau or a support person at counselling.

• Pick a calm time to talk, and start from care rather than blame.
• Listen more than you talk, and expect that they may not be ready the first time.
• Let them know about the helplines on this page, and that support is there when they're ready.
• Protect your own money, for example with separate accounts, and get support for yourself.

Safer Gambling Aotearoa's sharing and talking page has kōrero cards with conversation starters.

If you or someone else is in immediate danger, call 111. For a mental health emergency, contact your local crisis team. For support at any time, call or text 1737 to talk with a trained counsellor or peer support worker. It's free and confidential.