New Jdigital study on the incidence of illegal gambling in New Zealand
The Spanish Association of Digital Gaming (Jdigital) has presented a study prepared together with SigmaDos on the consumption habits of digital gamers. The report highlights the ignorance of a large part of the players of the difference between legal and illegal gambling. Most of the participants in the study would have claimed that they play online .com . Could this be the reason why online gambling in New Zealand has not yet exploded?
The Jdigital association has published a study prepared by SigmaDos in which the online consumption habits of Spanish players are analyzed. ©Towfiqu barbhuiya/Unsplash
The problem of illegal gambling
During the Ordinary General Assembly of Jdigital that was held last July and that was attended by the director of the DGOJ Mikel Arana, the Spanish online gaming employer presented its most recent study, The digital player in New Zealand . The report carried out with the collaboration of SigmaDos is an analysis in which the consumption habits of Spanish online players are addressed .
The most surprising conclusion of the study is that it reveals the general ignorance of what illegal gambling is. According to Jdigital almost half of those consulted would have said that they do not know how to distinguish between legal and illegal operators , that is, among those who own a domain .be , as required by the license granted by the DGOJ, and which are accessed through the domain .com .
“We are alarmed to see how widespread illegal gambling is in New Zealand. The fact that more than half of the online gaming users in our country play interchangeably on .es and .com platforms should worry the government as much as it worries the regulated sector.” – Jorge Hinojosa , managing director of Jdigital, in press release
Hinojosa has made reference to one of the main findings of the study: 53% of respondents would claim to play interchangeably on platforms .com and .be , and 17% of them would have recognized doing so only on webs .com . The latter is an important percentage that the DGOJ should take note of.
However, platforms that operate with domains .com they are not exactly illegal or fraudulent since they may have a license granted by one of the operating authorities in the European framework , such as that of the Gambling Commission of the United Kingdom or that of the Malta Gaming Authority. Although casinos operating with such licenses are not allowed to operate in New Zealand legally. Jdigital is right to point out that the game in domains .com it penalizes tax collection.
The CEO of Jdigital he further emphasized in which the only solution to create knowledge about legal gambling in New Zealand goes through advertising , that is, the advertising of the operators .be regulated that is currently very restricted after Royal Decree 958/2020:
“At this point, from Jdigital we can only vindicate the role of advertising as a tool for channeling players to licensed operators.”
Jdigital has been very critical with the gambling policies carried out by the DGOJ and the Ministry of Consumption. With regard to the first quarterly report of the Spanish authority certifying a sharp decrease in the turnover of the online sector , Jdigital reported that the policies implemented since the Royal Decree on Commercial Communications have created an environment of instability and uncertainty that is now reflected in the fall of online gambling and betting.
According to the Jdigital study, the participation of Spanish players in illegal gambling, that is, unregulated, is worrying. And the DGOJ should take action on the matter. However, a significant percentage of respondents (72%) claimed to be aware of the logo Safe Play on the websites of regulated operators, although a high percentage of these finally do not care where to play.
However, that the domain transmits security when playing is what they value the most (39.6%) , and this has a lot to do with the security of payment methods and the reliability of games. Unfortunately, we know that not all regulated casinos are one hundred percent reliable in this regard, which obviously generates distrust. It should be noted that almost 30% of respondents are fixed that the web has the seal Safe Play from the DGOJ.
The lack of knowledge about illegal gambling increases dramatically among older bettors, who are less familiar with online gambling. The primitive lottery and sports betting take the palm of the most played games according to the respondents and those in which punters start, preferably before the age of 25.
Perception of responsible gambling
A positive fact that is highlighted in the study is the perception that players have of responsible gambling. Although only half admit to knowing Playing Well , the DGOJ portal specialized in responsible gambling and problem gambling, most admit to being familiar with self-limiting tools , the register of self-prohibitions (RGIAJ) and the existence of service and support phone numbers .
26% of respondents would have voluntarily set limits on daily or weekly spending and 21% would have limited the time spent online, while 20% would have closed their user account permanently on occasion.
