Help, Tools and Resources for Safer Play

When to Reach Out

If gambling has stopped feeling like entertainment, you are not alone and help is available now — free, confidential, 24 hours a day, anywhere in New Zealand.

Gambling Helpline Aotearoa: 0800 654 655 · free · 24/7 · you can also text 8006 or live-chat at gamblinghelpline.co.nz

PGF Services: 0800 664 262 · free counselling, in person and online

Safer Gambling Aotearoa: safergambling.org.nz · information, self-assessment, family support

Need to talk? 1737 · free 24/7 mental health line for any concern, including gambling-related distress

If you’re worried about someone else, the same helplines offer support for family and whānau. You don’t need to be the person gambling to call.

Recognising the Warning Signs

Problem gambling rarely arrives all at once. It tends to creep, and people who are in it are often the last to notice. The patterns to watch for are familiar:

Gambling for longer than planned, or with more money than planned, repeatedly. “Just one more spin” turning into hours, regularly.

Chasing losses — betting bigger to win back what you’ve lost.

Hiding the amount or frequency of gambling from people close to you.

Borrowing money to gamble, or gambling money meant for bills, rent, or food.

Feeling restless or irritable when not gambling.

Lying about wins and losses.

Trying to stop and not being able to.

None of these on its own is necessarily a crisis. Several of them together is. If you recognise yourself in this list, the helplines above exist for exactly this. Calling is free, anonymous, and won’t trigger anything beyond a conversation.

Tools You Can Use Right Now

A few practical things that work, in roughly increasing order of commitment:

Set a deposit limit. Most online casinos including 1win let you set a daily, weekly, or monthly cap on how much you can deposit. Once set, the limit is harder to lift than to set; that’s deliberate.

Set a session time limit. Same logic, but for time. If you tell yourself “I’ll play for an hour” and routinely play three, a hard time limit forces a stop.

Take a cooling-off period. A short break, typically 24 hours to 30 days, during which you can’t access your account. Useful when you can feel a chase coming on.

Self-exclude from a specific operator. Long-term blocks, usually six months to permanent. Available on most reputable casinos. Once activated they cannot be reversed early.

Self-exclude across operators. From late 2026, New Zealand’s licensed operators will be required to support multi-operator self-exclusion. In the meantime, NZ players using offshore sites need to self-exclude on each platform individually.

Block gambling sites at the network level. Tools like Gamban, BetBlocker, and GamStop (UK-focused but works internationally on its supported list) block access at the device or DNS level. They cost between free and a few dollars a month and they work.

Manage payment access. Most NZ banks now offer a gambling block on debit and credit cards — ASB, BNZ, Westpac, Kiwibank and ANZ all have versions. The block applies at the merchant-category level and is a meaningful friction step.

How to Set Limits at 1win

1win provides player-protection settings inside the account area. To find them, log in and navigate to Account → Settings → Responsible Gambling. From there you can set deposit limits, session time limits, request a cooling-off period, or initiate self-exclusion.

If you’re having trouble accessing these settings or your request hasn’t been processed, contact 1win support directly through the operator’s live chat. We are not 1win’s support channel and cannot action limits on your behalf.

For Family and Whānau

If someone you love is in trouble with gambling, the most useful things you can do are usually the things that feel least dramatic. Don’t lend money. Don’t cover for them. Don’t try to gamble alongside them to keep an eye on it. Do call the helpline yourself — the support is for you too. PGF Services in particular has counselling specifically for family members.

Maori, Pacific and Asian whānau are disproportionately affected by gambling harm in New Zealand and have culturally-grounded services available. Mapu Maia (Pacific): 0800 21 21 22. Asian Family Services: 0800 862 342. Te Rito (Maori): your nearest service is listed at safergambling.org.nz.

A Note on the New Zealand Regime

From 1 December 2026, only operators with a granted or pending New Zealand licence can lawfully offer online casino gambling to NZ players. Licensed operators will be required to support stronger harm-minimisation: identity verification, deposit limits, self-exclusion, formal complaints handling, and a 1.24% problem gambling levy that funds support services.

In the meantime, if you’re playing at an offshore casino, the responsibility for harm minimisation sits more squarely with you. The tools above work regardless of where the operator is based, and the helplines work regardless of where you played.

Age Restriction

You must be 18 or older to gamble online in New Zealand. We don’t promote gambling to anyone under 18, and content on this site is intended only for adults.

A Final Word

Gambling is entertainment that costs money. When it works, it’s a small slice of leisure spending, the same way concert tickets or a meal out are. When it stops working, it has the capacity to do real damage — to finances, to relationships, to mental health. The difference between the two isn’t willpower; it’s how much friction you’ve put in place between you and the worst version of yourself.

If you’re reading this page because something feels off, that instinct is worth trusting. The helplines above are staffed by people whose job is to help, not to judge.