Pokies should cost what a night out costs — never more. This page holds every free NZ support service, the warning signs worth taking seriously, and the practical tools for keeping limits real.
All of these are free, confidential, and used by thousands of New Zealanders every year. Nobody will judge you, and you don't need to be "bad enough" to call.
| Service | Contact | What it offers |
|---|---|---|
| Gambling Helpline NZ | 0800 654 655 · free text 8006 | 24/7 phone and text support for gamblers, family and whānau |
| 1737 — Need to Talk? | Call or text 1737 | National counselling line, any time, any issue including gambling distress |
| PGF Services | pgf.nz | Free face-to-face counselling nationwide, family programmes, multilingual support |
| Salvation Army Oasis | salvationarmy.org.nz/oasis | Free specialist gambling harm services in main centres |
| Safer Gambling Aotearoa | safergambling.org.nz | Self-help tools, self-assessment quizzes and harm-reduction information |
Gambling harm rarely announces itself. It accumulates through small habits that feel individually reasonable. Be honest with yourself about these:
Depositing again specifically to win back what today already took. The single most reliable red flag there is.
Rent, groceries or bill money entering the casino balance — even "temporarily".
Deleting browser history, minimising screens, understating losses to people close to you.
Irritability when not playing, or sessions that continue long after they stopped being fun.
One of these is a conversation with yourself. Two or more is a phone call — 0800 654 655 exists precisely for the stage before things get bad.
Willpower is a poor limit system at 1am. Structures work better:
Play Croco's live chat can cap your deposits daily, weekly or monthly, or apply a cooling-off period. Ask before you think you need it.
Decide the month's entertainment spend away from the casino, while calm. A session that hits the number ends — wins and losses alike.
Gamban and BetBlocker block thousands of gambling sites at once. Offshore casinos sit outside NZ's exclusion registers, so device blocking is the reliable backstop.
A separate card or prepaid voucher (like Neosurf) creates a hard wall between play money and life money.
Play Croco support can suspend or close your account on request, temporarily or permanently. It takes one chat message.
Under-18s cannot gamble, full stop. Every page of this site and of the casino is 18+ territory.
Gambling Helpline 0800 654 655 (24/7), free text 8006, or call/text 1737. PGF Services and Salvation Army Oasis offer free in-person counselling.
Yes — NZ law targets operators, not players. But offshore play sits outside NZ consumer protections, which makes personal limits more important, not less.
Yes — live chat can set deposit caps, cooling-off periods or self-exclusion on request, 24/7.
Install Gamban or BetBlocker — they block thousands of gambling sites at the device level, including offshore operators no NZ register covers.
Only discretionary entertainment money — an amount whose total loss changes nothing about your week. If losing it would sting beyond disappointment, it's too much.
Volume alone isn't the test — impact is. Money stress, hidden play, chasing losses or mood swings around gambling are the signals. Safer Gambling Aotearoa has a free self-assessment.
Yes — the Helpline and PGF Services both run programmes for family and whānau affected by someone else's gambling. Free and confidential.
We earn referral commissions, disclosed on every page — and this page exists anyway. If gambling has stopped being entertainment for you, we'd rather you call 0800 654 655 than click any bonus button of ours.