New Zealand: Slot machines profit explodes

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern approached the pandemic with a n invigorating mixture of medial solicitousness and hard determination. Like many other countries New Zealand had to close the land based casinos and amusement arcades for several weeks due to a nationwide lockdown. Eventually New Zealand managed to reduce the number of infections to an absolute minimum.

Till now, in all there were only around 2,000 people who got infected with the virus. For this reason the measures could be relaxed several months ago. Lately the New Zealand Ministry of Interior announced that profits from slot machines had increased with an impressive 116 % since the end of the restrictions. Will this increase in profits affect the number of gambling addicted players or do we expect to have similar developments in Germany after the casinos and amusement arcades open again? There are around 18,100 km between the German Capital Berlin and New Zealand. Of course the geographically isolated island state with around 4,7 million inhabitants was not spared the consequences of the worldwide pandemic. After the turnover from gambling sank drastically in the second quarter due to the lockdown, the casino operators were pleased to make a profit of 116 % in the third quarter.

Profits in New Zealand casinos make a recovery

When the lockdown, which lasted several weeks ended and among other places, the casinos could open once again, it was expected beforehand that the sales performances will be positive. The published figures however were clearly more impressive than it was initially presumed. The New Zealand Minister of Interior announced recently, that the income from the so-called Pokies in the third quarter 2020 went up to more than 130 million New Zealand Dollars (NZD). Converted this comes up to around 76,5 million Euro. Therefore the turnover was higher than that in the comparable quarter of the last five years. According to the authorities, the fact that land based casinos could welcome guests once again was a determining factor for this positive development.

Gambling criticised in New Zealand

Similar to Germany there are some critical responses to gambling even in far off New Zealand. A stricter restriction of the so called Pokie-licences has therefore been discussed for quite some time in the region around the Capital Wellington. Moreover there are plans to ban new slot machines in places where casino operators will close.

There is no agreement, and not in New Zealand, on whether the persisting pandemic situation will have a negative development on those who may have a gambling problem. Currently, one cannot estimate, which effects the pandemic will have on future gambling behaviour.

Conclusion

After the New Zealanders had to do forgo stationary slot machines for several weeks, one can now play again without any restrictions. The revenue from July to September 2020 was way above that of the comparable quarter of the past years. In fact the turnover has increased by 116 % since the end of the lockdown. Unfortunately there has been no surveys as to what extent the lockdown measures have affected gambling addicted persons in their actions.  

Image Source: https://pixabay.com/de/photos/neuseeland-vulkan-krater-3018634/