DGOJ publishes the 2020 Game Activity Report
The new publication of the DGOJ corresponds to the Activity Report of the Directorate General for the year 2020. The figures of the game for last year were already known to us through other similar publications of the agency dependent on the Ministry of Consumption and directed by Mikel Arana. With a growth of more than 13% compared to the previous year, the digital gaming figures in New Zealand are on track. But it does not seem that this year 2021 will be able to repeat that figure in the absence of the latest quarterly reports of the DGOJ in this regard.
The contribution of games to gross revenues, control and monitoring activities of legal gambling, prosecution of illegal gambling and institutional relations. The 2020 Activity Report published by the DGOJ tells us about all this. ©Anna Nekrashevich/Pexels
The published report is intended to be a reflection of the activity carried out by the DGOJ during 2020 that complements the quarterly reports and the online player profile . In this way it is complete all the information related to digital gaming in New Zealand during 2020 .
In the presentation of the Report, Mikel Arana highlighted among the regulatory measures adopted in 2020 article 37 of Decree-Law 11/2020 published on 31 March and establishing urgent measures in the socio-economic field to face the crisis generated by the COVID-19 pandemic . The objective in this sense was the protection of consumers against the proliferation of digital gambling as a result of the months of forced confinement.
The Gaming Business Council (CeJuego) also it has been echoed in its most recent report of the tremendously negative consequences that the months of inactivity have had on the face-to-face game in New Zealand.
The aforementioned Article 37 of the Decree-law of March 2020 was a foretaste of what would later be legislated in the Royal Decree of the advertising of the game of November and which brought quite a bit of controversy in the sector . Article 37 provides strict regulation of online gambling advertising in which any reference to the exceptional situation of the pandemic that could lead to an apology for the digital game was expressly prohibited.
In addition, during the period of validity of the state of alarm, all promotional and customer attraction activities such as the welcome bonuses usually used by casinos as a claim were canceled. These measures became part of the regulation of digital gambling in New Zealand with the approval of Royal Decree 958/2020 at the end of the year , in which articles 7 and 8 of the Gambling Act of 2011 are developed.
Online gambling consolidates in 2020: the figures
In the Annual Report 2020 the DGOJ highlights the consolidation of the gross revenues of the game that in 2020 reached a figure that exceeds 850 million euros . As we have already advanced, it is noteworthy the increase in live games , one of the segments with the most projection of Spanish online casinos.
The contribution of different games to gross revenue it remains as follows:
- Live match bets: 26.1%
- Slots: 23.1%
- Conventional match bets: 15.7%
- Live roulette: 12%
- Tournament poker: 9%
- Poker cash: 4%
- Conventional roulette: 3.3%
The only segments that experienced a growth compared to 2019 were slots, live roulette and tournament poker , the latter with a rather steep rise of 42.7 and 27.8 percent respectively.
In 2020 casino games contributed 41.2% to gross revenue , while betting did so by 42.91%. This slightly pro-betting trend was finally broken during the second quarter of 2021 when casino games outperformed sports betting by almost 4% spurred on by the success of live gaming.
Control and surveillance activities of online gambling
For the 49 bookmakers and 63 regulated online casinos in New Zealand, the DGOJ carries out a constant monitoring activity of the technical systems, in addition to having supervised the measures contemplated in the aforementioned decrees. 109 complaints have been received, most of which have to do with account locks or quota changes . During the year as a whole, the DGOJ has filed 120 complaints (a number of which had been received in previous years) and 38 of them are still under investigation. This relatively low number of successful complaints speaks of the good health of online gambling in our country.
Persecution of illegal gambling
The DGOJ has opened a census of websites not enabled to offer digital gambling in New Zealand. The monitoring of illegal activity is one of the main actions of the agency and in this regard 32 sanctioning cases were initiated in 2020 .
Within the framework of the Global Betting Market Research Service (SIGMA) and in collaboration with the State Security Forces and Bodies up to 440 actions have been carried out in 2020 and 146 fraud alerts have been received , especially in football, table tennis and tennis; some figures that basically correspond to those presents the International Association for Integrity in Betting (IBIA) in its periodic reports .
