Clubs New Zealand meeting with the DIA

9 July 2020

Earlier this week Larry and Lucy met with senior members of the team at DIA, Lisa Docherty, Chris Thornborough and Eugene Lees for a "post COVID" catch up and discussion.

Gaming is up

DIA were quick to identify the notable increase in class 4 gaming across the board since the return to level 1.  They have asked clubs to be extra vigilant for signs of problem gambling and to remind staff of the processes within your club.

Clubs New Zealand is back in action and offering harm minimisation training, you can find more information on the training here.

Regulatory Relief for non-club Class 4 Operators

The DIA were able to provide some clarification on the purpose of the regulatory relief that has been extended to non-club societies and casinos as there has been some confusion.  The DIA stressed this was not a continuation of COVID relief but was rather the finalisation of regulatory change that has been on the cards for some time to allow non-club societies an opportunity to accumulate adequate working capital reserves to achieve financial viability. 

The DIA will be reviewing their communications in order to provide clarity here.

Clubs will benefit from the freeze to class 4 venues fees at the current (2019/20) levels and the waiving of certain fees payable for the period 25 March to 30 June 2020.

Return to the Community

We discussed the recent white paper and Clubs New Zealand’s response.  The DIA are certainly interested in capturing more information about the contribution clubs make. 

We reiterated the frustration at continually having to educate decision makers on the differences between clubs and non-club Class 4 venues and the need for clubs to become more vocal about sharing the good work they do in the community.

Other matters

As always we took the opportunity to discuss some of the reoccurring concerns such as 37.12%, online gaming, harm minimisatio and cashless.  The DIA team understand these concerns and agree that more work is needed particularly in getting the full picture of club contributions as there are some notible gaps there.

The Minister for Internal Affairs the Hon Tracey Martin will be joining us at the Clubs New Zealand Annual General Meeting in August and we look forward to hearing from her in regards to Class 4 Gaming in Clubs as well as her views on the role of clubs within the community particularly in relation to hey role as Minister for Seniors.