A casino night is the perfect fundraiser: it’s fun, it’s social, it’s easy to theme, and it’s likely to be popular enough to generate decent ticket sales. The thing is, in New Zealand, the minute you add a bit of chance, some prizes, and some cash, you are in a regulated environment. “It’s only for charity” does not take you out of that environment.
The aim is to encourage organisers to proceed with a little bit of planning to ensure the activity is on the right side of the rules, and a Vegas night can be organised in a manner that appears genuine, raises funds, and is legal in NZ.
The following guide walks through casino fundraisers: when they turn into “gambling,” how to structure tickets and prizes, and how to keep both the regulator and the audience comfortable.
New Zealand gambling laws are based upon products where the following three elements coexist: the stake of a value, chance to determine an outcome, and the possible winning of a prize. You could turn a casino table with play money into one of those products if you are not careful how you design the table.
Added to that, the Act views gambling for profit and gambling for the purpose of the community in vastly different ways. The second category is where fundraisers will fall, but they are also bound by rules regarding prizes, turnover limits and class restrictions. One glance at an outline of how NZ gambling law works will give you a grounding in the basics to begin planning the function.
Under the Gambling Act, it is the mechanics and not the decor that is important. Where individuals put up hard cash at a table, engage in a game of pure or significant chance, and receive cash and or prizes in return, you are in the realm of gambling and not entertainment.
Community fund-raising will tend to fall into lower gambling “classes” and various levels of total prizes and turnover allowed. But if you begin to drift above those levels, or indeed resemble a credible casino and not a fund-raising night out, the area of licensing and a more adult form of the concept of licensed online casinos and casino operations will be closer to hand.
For a more detailed look, consider examining a plain-English summary of the Gambling Act 2003. You don’t need to take up a career in the legal profession, but a basic grasp of the Act’s concern for the minimisation of harm and “authorised purposes” will make it easier to distinguish where the casino fundraiser fits in.
The best way to maintain the legality of a casino fundraiser is to separate “gameplay” from the funds you are raising. The typical pattern is: guests purchase an entry ticket, the entry ticket comes with a package of play chips, and the chips are simply for entertainment purposes at the gaming tables. Once the chips are inside, nobody is allowed to purchase chips with cash.
The prizes are then awarded in a way that resembles a lottery more than a cash-out cage. For instance, everyone can receive a draw in a prize lottery based on their final chip stacks, or the top chip stacks go into a hat for the bigger prizes. The important thing to understand is that people are not buying chances directly with real cash while playing.
Since NZ laws take into account the total value of the prizes, it becomes important to ensure that a clear prize pool is established and remains below the class value threshold. However, you should still be able to make the competition a significant occasion through sponsored prizes and rewards, while keeping very large cash prizes out of the picture to avoid the more regulated class.
If you are taking cash payments at the table for each hand, you are probably engaged in illegal gambling activities. Using play chips that cannot be exchanged for cash, in conjunction with a one-ticket entrance price, removes the legal risk from the equation. Your guests experience the thrill of “betting,” but you are not running a casino.
Sponsorship and donations are the way to go here. Local businesses may sponsor a table and donate prizes in kind. Players will purchase tickets, purchase additional chances to win in the raffle, and make a straight donation, but they will not be buying chips when they actually sit down to play. The difference is simple: cash at the door and not cash at the table.
You can make life simpler for yourself by incorporating honesty into your marketing strategy. Instead of “one night only charity casino,” consider “casino-themed fundraising night” to give it a glamorous touch while distancing the campaign from real gambling and huge wins associated with a commercial casino.
Even if what you are doing is classed as low-level gambling, the harm minimisation principles should be followed anyway. It is usually best to ensure casino fundraisers are only for people 18 plus if there are casino-style games and alcohol involved.
The responsible messaging in gambling doesn’t need to be too heavy. A short note on tickets, a presentation at the beginning of the evening, and a verbal reminder that it’s play money and you are not “winning back losses,” in most instances, will be enough. But if you do find yourself in a position of pointing people in the direction of the real thing later on, for example by mentioning the safest online casino options for adults, make it an informative, non-promotional tool.
Venue rules should also be considered. There may be venue rules regarding gambling-style events, particularly where the venue has its own gaming machines or liquor licences at stake. You should make the rules clear in writing before securing the date to avoid a surprise if a venue manager has an issue with a particular type of game design.
The first and most prevalent blunder is to allow the purchase of chips to occur again and again throughout the night. It simply doesn’t seem to be a problem – “it’s for a good cause” – but in regulatory terms it looks a lot like unlicensed gambling activity. The more real cash in the casino setting, the less plausible it is to claim it’s themed entertainment.
Then there is the issue of prize creep. The fund-raising teams add a “just one more” large prize, take a couple of sponsorship deals, and before long the combined prizes are pushing the limit for their category. It is much easier to limit the prizes and treat any additional sponsorship as a straight contribution to the cause and not part of the jackpot.
Lastly, organisers can forget that online activities also matter. If you begin live streaming the events, incorporating side games through applications, or connecting people to digital raffles, make sure that those elements fall in the same regulatory category and do not put you into the space of providing remote gambling services.
Before you begin printing out tickets or lining up a band, it is a good idea to go through a short checklist in simple terms. This in no way constitutes legal advice but will keep most community groups out of obvious danger:
For a wider perspective on regulated gambling operations for adults, in particular the web-based variety, an impartial guide from dashtickets.nz will provide a useful point of comparison. This will assist in gaining a better perspective regarding where your one-off fundraiser stands in comparison to commercial operations and why the regulators establish their respective lines.
Run well, a casino fundraiser brings a party, not a legal issue, to mind. The aims of the Gambling Act should be taken, in effect, as a design specification and not an inhibition to be hurdled. When the framework is in place, the casino kit of chips, green baize, and funny money will do its job: give the guests a night to remember and raise genuine funds for a worthy cause.
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