The New Zealand House of Parliament is taking up the country’s Racing Industry Bill (RIB), ready to make sweeping changes to provide better oversight to gambling activity on horse and greyhound racing. Members of the New Zealand Transport and Infrastructure Select Committee (TISC) have gotten together to draft and approve 30 different upgrades to the legislation, mostly centered on how official data is distributed and who will ultimately lead that oversight. The recommendations have already been presented to the House, which isn’t expected to put up too much resistance.
One of the changes requested deals with the price of official data. The committee wants to impose a new fee structure in order to control the amount of data that flows to offshore sportsbooks. The nature of the structure or what it entails wasn’t provided. In addition, the TISC wants to work more closely with existing racing legislation, including Greyhound Racing New Zealand (GRNZ), Harness Racing New Zealand (HRNZ) and New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing (NZTR), in order to ensure that all three include the requested measures to force offshore bookmakers to pay for the acquisition of the data.
If the House approves of the changes, the RIB will be made law, which means the legislation could see implementation a little later than expected. The bill was introduced to lawmakers on December 5 last year, and had its first reading five days later. The coronavirus has forced changes to priorities and slowed down a lot of legislative initiatives across the globe. It was previously thought that a resolution could be found sometime this month, but that now looks untenable.
Unless there are changes, the bill would also lead to the creation of a single entity to manage the three legal racing structures. Racing NZ would be responsible for ensuring compliance with the RIB, and could also take control of some of the functions of each of the three codes. The result is a more uniform application of existing horse and greyhound gambling laws, as well as consistency in how the RIB’s language is applied.
TAB NZ, which is operated by the New Zealand Racing Board, could also see changes to its structure as a result of the TISC’s suggestions. The committee wants a selection panel created to appoint members to the board, with three coming directly from the recommendations of GRNZ, HRNZ and NZTR. However, there would not be any major changes to how TAB NZ would operate.
The New Zealand Racing Industry’s Transition Agency released a statement about the changes and the implementation of the RIB, adding, “There are over 30 areas where the Committee have recommended changes and it will take us some time to work through and understand each of the different proposals. Our initial view of the Select Committee’s recommendations is that the overall direction and structure of the Bill remains the same as it was before the Committee and is still in line with the direction of the Messara Report. The TAB will be established as a pure betting, broadcasting and gaming entity, and the Codes will have greater roles and responsibilities for developing and promoting their sport.”
