Choice Not Chance | hsc.org.nz

While many people gamble safely, a significant number of people are still being harmed by their own or someone else's gambling.

But there are some things we can all do to change this situation.

Our work increases awareness about gambling harms and supports communities to prevent and respond to harmful gambling.

Our goal - gambling problems are prevented and gambling harm is minimised.

Every day New Zealanders lose $5.5 million on gambling. That is around $2 billion each year. Half of this, around $1 billion, is lost on pokie machines.
The 2006/07 New Zealand Health Survey reports that almost 3% of adults (87,000) had experienced problems due to someone’s gambling in the previous 12 months.
It is estimated that between five and 10 people are negatively affected by the behaviour of a serious problem gambler.
One in five New Zealanders feel that someone close to them has had a day or occasion in the past 12 months in which they've spent too much time or money on gambling.
Māori and Pacific adults are more than three and a half times more likely than adults in the total population to be problem gamblers.
Two out of five regular pokie players is likely to have a gambling problem.
The social costs of gambling are out of proportion to the numbers of problem gamblers. Gamblers may commit crimes to finance their gambling, causing harm to their victims and their families as well as themselves, and incurring costs in the criminal justice sector.

Our work focuses on six key areas:

Key activities include:

helping the public to differentiate between safe and risky gambling
assisting frontline gambling services to help implement national activities at the local level
supporting the wider sector.

To find out more about our work in this area check out: