Problem Gambling: A Money Recovery Plan
💬 You are not alone, and help is free
If gambling has started to hurt your money, your relationships or your sleep, you are not a failure and you have not run out of options. Gambling products are built by teams of designers to keep people playing, so getting caught is common and getting out is possible. About one in five people in New Zealand will be harmed at some point in their life by their own or someone else's gambling, so you are in good company and there is a well funded, free support system ready to help you. This guide focuses on the money side: how to make your money safe today, how to understand the real cost, how to find free confidential help, and how to rebuild a budget and deal with debt without shame and without borrowing more. There is no judgement here, only a plan.
Where to get free help right now
Every service below is free and confidential. You can call for yourself, or for someone you care about. You do not need a referral, and you will not be judged.
| Service | Contact | What it is for |
|---|---|---|
| Gambling Helpline | Call 0800 654 655 or text 8006 | Immediate free support, 7 days, for you or a family member |
| Maori Gambling Helpline | 0800 654 656 | Kaupapa Maori support |
| Vai Lelei Pasifika Gambling Helpline | 0800 654 657 | Pasifika support |
| Gambling Debt Helpline | 0800 654 658 | Support focused on gambling debt |
| Youth Gambling Helpline | 0800 654 659 | Support for young people |
| MoneyTalks | Call 0800 345 123 or text 4029 | Free financial mentoring, budgeting and debt |
You can also find a free face to face gambling support service near you at safergambling.org.nz. Services funded by Health New Zealand (Te Whatu Ora) are free for the person gambling and for family and whanau affected by someone else's gambling.
If you or someone else is in danger or thinking about suicide, call 111 now, or free call or text 1737 any time to talk with a trained counsellor. Money problems can feel overwhelming, but they can be worked through, and your safety comes first.
How gambling is designed to keep you playing
Understanding the design is not about blame, it is about taking back the advantage. Modern gambling products use the same behavioural tricks whether they are in a pub, a casino or on your phone.
- Pokies (Class 4 machines): Lights, sounds and frequent small wins keep you in a trance. Many "wins" pay back less than you staked, so you feel rewarded while still losing. Machines are the single biggest source of gambling harm in New Zealand.
- Casino tables and casino apps: Fast rounds, free drinks and no clocks or windows remove the natural stopping points. Online casino sites hosted overseas run all night with no closing time at all.
- Sports and race betting (TAB): Live in-play betting turns one decision into dozens, and cash-out offers pull you back in. Promotions and "bonus bets" are designed to build a habit, not to make you money.
- Lotto and Instant Kiwi: Low cost per ticket makes it feel harmless, but a daily habit adds up quietly, and scratch tickets give the same fast reward loop as a pokie.
- Loot boxes and in-game spending: Games sell random rewards for real money with the same uncertainty that drives pokies. This hits young people hardest and often does not feel like "gambling" at all.
Every one of these products is set up so that, over time, the operator keeps a slice of everything staked. No system, lucky streak or "due" number changes that. Chasing losses does not win the money back, it just increases the loss. Recognising this is the first practical step to stopping the bleed.
🛟 Recognising harm and making your money safe
Gambling harm is not only about how much you bet. It is about the effect on your money, your mood and the people around you. You do not have to tick every box below to deserve help.
Signs that gambling is costing too much
- Chasing losses: Betting more to try to win back what you have already lost.
- Borrowing to gamble: Using a credit card, an overdraft, buy now pay later or a payday loan to fund gambling.
- Money meant for bills: Rent, power, groceries or the kids' costs going on gambling instead.
- Hiding it: Deleting transactions from your mind, lying about where money went, or keeping a secret account.
- Relief and dread: Feeling calm only while gambling, then anxious about the balance afterwards.
- Selling or pawning: Turning belongings into cash to keep going.
A simple check used by support services is: has gambling caused you to feel like you might have a problem, or has anyone close to you raised it? If the honest answer is yes, that is reason enough to take the money-safety steps below. You do not need a formal diagnosis to protect your own money.
Immediate money-safety steps
These steps put friction between you and gambling. They work best stacked together, because each one closes a different door. None of them require you to have stopped completely first.
1. Turn on a bank gambling block
Several New Zealand banks, including Westpac and Kiwibank, offer a free opt-in gambling block on your debit and credit cards. Once switched on, the block stops your card being used for online transactions with gambling businesses. At Westpac the block stays on for a minimum of three months before you can ask to remove it, which builds in a helpful cooling-off period. Ask your own bank what block it offers. A block does not cover cash spent in person at a venue, so pair it with self-exclusion below.
2. Remove saved cards and log-ins
Delete saved card details from betting apps, casino sites, your phone wallet and your browser. Turn off one-click payments. Every extra step you have to take to gamble is a moment where you can stop.
3. Self-exclude from venues (including multi-venue)
Under the Gambling Act 2003 you can ask a pub, club or casino to exclude you from its gambling area, and the venue manager must promptly issue a self-exclusion order for a period of up to two years. You do not need to see a counsellor first. A multi-venue exclusion (MVE) lets you exclude yourself from many venues at once through a local coordinator, so you do not have to visit each one. Call the Gambling Helpline on 0800 654 655 or a local service to arrange it.
4. Self-exclude online
On the TAB you can take a short break or set a long-term self-exclusion (6 months, 1 year or indefinite) through the responsible gambling settings in your account. Lotto NZ lets you set limits or exclude yourself through MyLotto. For overseas online casino sites, the strongest tool you have is your bank block, because those sites are outside New Zealand rules.
5. Let a trusted person help
Ask a partner, family member or friend to hold a spending card, to be a second signature on a savings account, or simply to be someone you check in with. Handing over day to day control for a while is a strength, not a weakness, and it removes the pressure of relying on willpower alone.
Credit cards, overdrafts, buy now pay later and payday loans turn a bad week into a debt that follows you for months. If you are already borrowing to gamble, the bank block and self-exclusion steps matter even more, and the Gambling Debt Helpline on 0800 654 658 and MoneyTalks on 0800 345 123 can help you deal with what is owed without piling on more.
🔧 Getting help and rebuilding your money
Once your money is safer, the next stage is rebuilding. This is where free services do their best work, because they take the pressure off you to solve everything alone.
Free confidential help, explained
- Gambling Helpline (0800 654 655, text 8006): Free phone and text support, 7 days. Counsellors can talk through what is happening, arrange self-exclusion, and connect you to a local face to face service. There are also specialist Maori, Pasifika, youth and debt lines listed in Section 1.
- Face to face gambling services: Free counselling funded by Health New Zealand, available around the country. Find one at safergambling.org.nz. Family and whanau affected by someone else's gambling can use these services too.
- MoneyTalks (0800 345 123, text 4029): Free, confidential financial mentoring run by FinCap and funded by the Ministry of Social Development. A mentor can help you build a budget, talk to creditors, and set up a realistic repayment plan.
Build a realistic budget
A budget after gambling harm is not about punishment. It is about giving every dollar a job so there is nothing loose to gamble and nothing hidden to worry about. A simple weekly plan works well because most bills and pay cycles are weekly or fortnightly.
- Start with take-home pay for the week or fortnight, not your gross salary.
- List the essentials first: rent or mortgage, power, phone and internet, groceries, transport, insurance.
- Add minimum debt repayments so nothing falls further behind.
- Set a small automatic savings amount into a separate account you cannot easily reach.
- Redirect what you used to gamble into debt and savings, where it does real work.
Automating payments on payday means the money is allocated before it can be spent. A financial mentor can set this up with you for free.
Print or download three months of bank statements and highlight every gambling transaction. Seeing the yearly total in one place is confronting, but it is also motivating, and it shows exactly how much you can redirect. The worked examples in the next section do this arithmetic for you.
Dealing with gambling debt without more borrowing
Gambling debt is usually made up of high interest credit cards, overdrafts, buy now pay later and sometimes loans from friends or family. The trap is borrowing again to cover a repayment. Instead:
- Get a full picture: list every debt, the balance, the interest rate and the minimum payment.
- Ask for a hardship arrangement: New Zealand lenders can pause or reduce payments, freeze interest or agree a plan when you are in genuine difficulty. A financial mentor can make these calls with you.
- Attack the most expensive debt first while paying the minimum on the rest, or clear the smallest balance first for a motivating quick win.
- Do not consolidate into more borrowing unless a mentor has checked it genuinely lowers the cost, and the card block is on so a cleared card does not fill up again.
Supporting a family member
If someone you love is gambling, you can get free help for yourself, not just for them. You cannot control their choices, but you can protect the household's money and look after your own wellbeing.
- Call for support: the Gambling Helpline (0800 654 655) and free local services are open to family and whanau.
- Protect shared money: consider separating accounts, removing their access to joint savings, and checking whether any debts are in your name.
- Set kind, firm boundaries: you can offer support without paying gambling debts or lending cash. Paying losses can unintentionally keep the cycle going.
- Get your own budget checked: MoneyTalks (0800 345 123) can help you make the household finances safe while the person gets help.
A lapse does not undo your progress and it does not mean help has failed. If it happens, turn the blocks back on, call the helpline, and pick the plan back up. Every day the money is protected is a day the harm is smaller.
🔢 Worked Examples
These four New Zealand examples show the money side of recovery in action. The people are made up, but the numbers and steps are real and hand-checked.
Situation: Hemi had been losing around $100 a week on pokies and online betting and wanted to make his money safe before payday.
What he did in one afternoon:
The money this protects:
Situation: Aroha spends about $80 a week across pokies and Lotto. It feels small in the moment, so she worked out the real annual cost.
One year:
If it creeps up to $150 a week:
The same $80 a week redirected instead:
Seeing $4,160 a year, or $12,480 over three years, makes an abstract habit concrete. Aroha set an automatic $80 weekly transfer into a separate savings account the day her pay lands, so the money is redirected before she can spend it.
Situation: Sione takes home $1,200 a week. He used to lose about $150 of it on gambling. With a financial mentor from MoneyTalks he built a plan that gives every dollar a job.
New weekly budget:
Situation: Mere's brother owes about $6,000 across two credit cards from online betting. She wanted to help without simply paying it off, which had not worked before.
What she did:
The repayment plan:
Mere offered time, encouragement and help making the free calls, but did not pay the losses directly. That kept her own money safe and let her brother take ownership of the plan, which support services say gives recovery a better chance.
🎯 Test Your Knowledge
A 10-question quiz on the money side of gambling harm and recovery
Related guides and tools
- Financial Stress Guide - practical steps when money worry feels overwhelming
- Emotional Spending Guide - spotting and slowing spending driven by feelings
- Financial Hardship Help Guide - support and options when you cannot cover the basics
- Debt Payoff Strategies Guide - clearing debt without more borrowing
- Budget Calculator - build a realistic weekly or monthly plan
- What Lotto really costs guide, for the odds and the opportunity cost, set out plainly.
Sources: verified July 2026 against the Gambling Helpline (gamblinghelpline.co.nz) for the helpline numbers and text option; Safer Gambling Aotearoa (safergambling.org.nz) and Health New Zealand, Te Whatu Ora (tewhatuora.govt.nz) for free services and the one in five lifetime harm figure; Department of Internal Affairs (dia.govt.nz) and the Gambling Act 2003 for self-exclusion and multi-venue exclusion rules; Westpac NZ and RNZ for bank gambling blocks; MoneyTalks and FinCap (moneytalks.co.nz, fincap.org.nz) for free financial mentoring. This is general information, not personalised financial, legal or health advice.