Sports betting with Skrill in New Zealand

Updated October 2026

Licensed

Available in US

Fast payouts

18+ Only

Last updated: October 30, 2026 · Verified against the Racing Industry Act 2020 (as amended by the Racing Industry Amendment Act 2025), the Department of Internal Affairs public statements, and TAB NZ’s own current terms.

A Skrill wallet holds the money. A New Zealand betting account is a very different question, and the answer to it was rewritten on 28 June 2025. From that date the only provider lawfully offering racing and sports betting to a person in New Zealand is TAB NZ, operating two online brands — TAB and Betcha — under section 74AAA of the Racing Industry Act 2020. Every offshore sportsbook listed further down this page is, in plain terms, unlawful for the operator to serve New Zealand customers. That distinction is the spine of this guide: the rest of the page is the practical reading of it, from Skrill as a payment rail through to where a punter’s money actually sits when a bet wins.

Skrill itself remains usable in New Zealand as a digital wallet. It’s an e-money account issued by Paysafe Limited, the same group that owns Neteller and the prepaid paysafecard; you can hold balances in multiple currencies, send and receive money, and move funds to and from betting sites that sit outside the New Zealand monopoly. The New Zealand-betting question is whether the receiving site is one Skrill is allowed to send to under local law, and that has nothing to do with Skrill the wallet.

Three reader paths run through what follows. Path one: a New Zealand resident who wants to bet on the All Blacks, the Melbourne Cup or Super Rugby Pacific within a regulated framework with harm-minimisation tools and a complaints route — for them the answer is TAB NZ, on either of its two online brands. Path two: a New Zealand resident who already holds a Skrill balance and wants to use it against an offshore bookmaker, accepting that the operator is the party in breach and that the page’s earlier section explains the risks and the limits of that choice. Path three: someone asking a narrower question — what does TAB NZ actually accept, is there an app, what are the safer-gambling tools — answered in the section that owns it.

The cluster order on this page is legality first, then safer gambling, then payments, then the head-to-head between TAB NZ’s two brands and the offshore shortlist, then a primer on Skrill itself and what it costs as a rail. The angle is choice: which paths exist, what each one costs the bettor, and who each one suits.

Legality and the New Zealand betting monopoly

What the Racing Industry Act 2020 now says

The Racing Industry Amendment Act 2025 inserted section 74AAA, which took effect on 28 June 2025. No person other than TAB NZ may offer racing betting, sports betting or other racing or sports betting to a person in New Zealand, no matter where that person is incorporated or resident. The Department of Internal Affairs told providers serving New Zealand to withdraw with immediate effect and continues to monitor compliance under the Gambling Act 2003.

The change is structural, not promotional. It does not licence offshore sites that were previously unregulated; it removes the lawful basis on which they were already operating. There is no application process and no licence register for sports or racing bookmakers, because there is only one lawful provider to register. TAB NZ runs fixed-odds betting and the tote (parimutuel pool) under the Racing Industry Act; it is run operationally by Entain under a 25-year agreement signed in 2023, with a 50/50 share of gross profits to each partner and at least NZ$150 million a year going to TAB NZ for the first five years, plus a one-off NZ$100 million payment Entain pledged to the racing sector.

What may and may not be bet on

TAB NZ offers the racing products Kiwis have always used: Win, Place, Each Way, Quinella, Exacta, Trifecta, First Four, Double, Treble, Daily Double, Running Double, Quaddie and Big6, plus fixed-odds singles, multis and same-game multis on sports. Live, in-play betting is listed in the TAB NZ apps. What is not established is any statutory per-bet cap or any narrowing of in-play markets by the Racing Industry Act — TAB NZ sets its own limits.

Politics and novelty markets are not established as separate categories. Greyhound racing is closing in stages from 1 August 2026, and from that date an offshore operator may not take bets on greyhound races either, since the same section 74AAA covers them. Whether esports betting is “sports betting” under the Act is not established in the public material at the time of writing — TAB NZ’s own programme serves as the reference.

The Online Casino Gambling Act 2026 and what it does not do

The Online Casino Gambling Act 2026 creates a licensing route for online casino gambling only. TAB NZ holding that right does not extend the betting monopoly into casino and the new casino licensing does not loosen section 74AAA. A New Zealand bettor who follows the link between “casino licence” and “sports betting licence” ends up in the wrong statute. Virtual, computer-simulated sport is treated by the 2026 casino law as casino gambling — that route is licensed separately and is not what this page covers.

Advertising, affiliates and what the ASA’s Gambling Advertising Code says

Because only TAB NZ may lawfully offer betting here, the Department of Internal Affairs treats as covered the act of promoting or taking bets for another operator on behalf of a New Zealand audience. How DIA treats betting affiliates is not established in the public material. The Advertising Standards Authority’s Gambling Advertising Code applies to any betting advertisement that does reach New Zealand: ads must not target under-14s or 14-to-under-18s, judged by context and expected audience share, must not encourage gambling harm and must be truthful with terms available. There is no New Zealand equivalent of the UK “whistle-to-whistle” pre-watershed broadcast ban.

Where the player sits in this picture

Section 19(4) of the Gambling Act 2003, inserted in 2025, says an individual may not be convicted for placing a bet with an offshore operator in breach of section 74AAA — meaning no published penalty for a player was found. New Zealand law targets the operator. The Department of Internal Affairs warns that overseas operators may sit in jurisdictions with minimal consumer safeguards, may not return unspent credits, and may not pay out large wins. None of that makes placing an offshore bet illegal for the player; none of it gives a New Zealand bettor a complaints route if the offshore bookmaker refuses to pay.

Tax, in two sentences that matter

For most recreational punters, IRD guidance says winnings from gambling, including TAB racing pools, are not taxable. A person who bets as a business sits in a different case — general information only, not tax advice. TAB NZ pays a Problem Gambling Levy of 0.74% of its revenue (in force from 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2028); offshore operators supplying New Zealand residents pay online gambling duty — 12% of profits since 1 July 2024, moving to 16% from 1 January 2027 — but paying tax in New Zealand does not make an offshore offer lawful, and the point-of-consumption charge on offshore racing and sports bets ceased on 30 June 2026.

Safer gambling tools, limits and where to get help

The safer-gambling tools a New Zealand punter can actually reach sit inside TAB NZ. Offshore bookmakers accept New Zealand sign-ups under their own rules but do not plug into New Zealand harm-minimisation infrastructure. That asymmetry is the cleanest reason to keep betting where it can be supported.

What TAB NZ puts in the app

The TAB NZ app — both TAB and Betcha share the same safer-gambling framework because both brands sit inside the TAB NZ group — provides deposit limits, time-outs and self-exclusion. Self-exclusion applies across both TAB and Betcha; the same exclusion flag, in other words. Exclusion length is the punter’s choice and is set by the punter, not by the operator.

The free, 24-hour helpline

TAB NZ publishes the free Gambling Helpline (0800 654 655) and a text line (8006) on its app and on its safer-gambling pages. Safer Gambling Aotearoa runs the service. Both are free, confidential and staffed by counsellors. A punter who wants to set a deposit ceiling but feels they cannot stick to it has somewhere to ring without first opening an account.

The age rule

The age for TAB NZ betting is 18, set under section 89 of the Racing Industry Act 2020. Land-based casinos run an age-20 floor in New Zealand — that is a casino rule and does not transfer to betting. An offshore bookmaker that accepts a 17-year-old from New Zealand is breaking the New Zealand rule on under-age betting and the offshore bookmaker’s own house rules at the same time; the punter still faces an account closure and a forfeited balance.

What offshore books offer in this room

Offshore books offer their own responsible-gambling pages, their own self-exclusion mechanics and their own limits. None of them connect to the New Zealand register that the casino law will require, because that register covers casinos only. A bettor who self-excludes from one offshore book can open an account at the next one the same afternoon. The page that follows is honest about that and about the limits of offshore support, but does not pretend it can be patched up.

Where the limit sits if the punter is in trouble

The chain runs punter → Safer Gambling Aotearoa → counselling. Where a bettor is in distress now, the helpline is the first call. Where a bettor is reading ahead of trouble, the deposit-limit tool is the cheapest insurance against later regret, and turning it on before the All Blacks run out for the first test takes about a minute in the TAB NZ app.

Payments and payout speed: Skrill, TAB NZ and the offshore shortlist

Skrill itself, briefly

Skrill is an e-money account issued under Paysafe Limited, the same umbrella group that owns Neteller and paysafecard. It started as Moneybookers in London on 27 July 2001, was rebranded to Skrill starting in September 2011 (transition completed by 2013), and was bought by Optimal Payments (later Paysafe) for €1.1 billion in 2015. It handles online payments, money transfers, card payments, bank transfers and, since July 2018, conversion of funds to cryptocurrency. A Skrill account can hold balances in multiple currencies at once and moves them at the mid-market rate plus Skrill’s published conversion fee.

Skrill is not a bank. Deposits are not insured by the usual deposit-guarantee schemes that bank balances sit under. A bettor funding a Skrill account and then funding a betting site from Skrill is paying a fee Skrill does not advertise for that specific bet — Skrill charges for currency conversion and for moving money into a merchant site that sits in a high-risk category. The published Skrill fee schedule on its own site represents the true cost; betting sites claiming “no fee from Skrill” often omit the Skrill-side fee.

What TAB NZ actually accepts and how the page lists it

TAB NZ’s deposit methods and limits sit in TAB NZ’s own terms; no statutory payment rule for betting accounts was found. Department of Internal Affairs guidance warns that overseas operators may not return unspent credits — TAB NZ, by contrast, holds credits under New Zealand consumer law and the Gambling Act 2003 framework, which gives a New Zealand punter a complaints route TAB NZ is required to engage with.

TAB NZ’s deposit methods commonly run bank deposit, debit card (Visa and Mastercard), POLi, and in-app wallet top-ups; the precise set and any minimums change, so the TAB NZ cashier page — inside the app or on the desktop site — is the only source that is current. Skrill is not among TAB NZ’s listed deposit methods at the time of the most recent TAB NZ terms review. For a New Zealand punter who wants to use a Skrill balance at the legal bookmaker, the rail closes here: TAB NZ takes bank cards and POLi and the New Zealand rails, not Skrill.

What offshore sites accept, including Skrill

Offshore sportsbooks that market to a global audience tend to take Skrill, alongside cards, crypto and a handful of country-specific rails. Skrill-to-offshore deposits are usually instant on the bookmaker’s side; withdrawals from the bookmaker back to a Skrill account are usually processed in under 24 hours by the operator, with Skrill’s own ledger update typically inside the same day. The bottleneck is the bookmaker’s withdrawal-approval queue, not Skrill.

The catch is the one already named. Skrill is happy to move the money. New Zealand law is the part that is unhappy. A punter funding a Skrill account from a New Zealand bank, sending the Skrill balance to an offshore bookmaker, and then asking for the winnings back through Skrill, is using a perfectly working rail into a jurisdiction where the bookmaker has no obligation to honour the New Zealand side of the deal.

The “fast withdrawal” picture, honestly

Crypto rails are the fastest at the offshore end — usually minutes once the operator approves. Skrill sits between card and crypto: same-day for most of the operators that advertise it, next-day for the rest. Bank wires are slow. Prepaid cards and paysafecard are deposit-only by design. A punter who prioritises speed above everything else ends up at crypto or Skrill, with the New Zealand-law caveat attached to both.

Fees, the part that is easy to forget

Skrill fees most prominently: a fee for funding a Skrill account from a card or bank in some configurations; a fee on currency conversion at the point a non-base-currency balance is used; a fee for withdrawal back to a bank. None of these is hidden, all of them are on Skrill’s fee page, and an offshore bookmaker’s “free withdrawal” claim refers to the bookmaker’s fee, not to Skrill’s. Adding the two fees back-to-back provides the realistic view of what the punter pays.

Where a punter checks the current answer

TAB NZ’s own cashier page is the canonical reference for what TAB NZ accepts and at what minimum. For an offshore bookmaker, the operator’s own banking page is the canonical reference, and the same operator’s terms of service section on payments is the place any fees are stated. Skrill’s fee page is the third reference for the Skrill-side fees. Anything else is marketing prose.

The head-to-head: TAB NZ’s two brands and what to know about offshore

Brand card: TAB (tab.co.nz)

TAB is the legacy TAB NZ brand and the one most New Zealand punters already have an account with. It shares its safer-gambling framework, age rules and harm-minimisation obligations with Betcha because the two brands are run by the same operator group under the same statute. The TAB app carries the wider product: racing, sports, Trackside live race streaming with in-app betting, full racing form, Blackbook, Jockey Challenge and the consolidated wallet. For racing-only punters and for most multi-sport users, TAB is the brand to load.

What sets TAB apart in this comparison: the racing depth — Australian and New Zealand thoroughbreds, harness, the closing greyhound code, plus the live-streaming rail inside the app — and the historical book of form that the platform has carried for decades. The TAB app is the platform most New Zealand punters will keep on their home screen alongside their banking app.

Brand card: Betcha (betcha.co.nz)

Betcha is the newer brand, aimed at sports bettors who do not need the racing depth. Same group, same licence, same safer-gambling framework, same wallet family — but the product page is built around sports, with racing-form coverage coming from the TAB side. Where TAB is the all-rounder, Betcha is the sports-only entry point: the cleaner interface for a bettor whose interest is the All Blacks, the Warriors or the Black Caps and who is happy to skip the racing pools.

What sets Betcha apart in this comparison: the lighter interface, sports-first product placement, and the same harm-minimisation tools a TAB account carries. A bettor who already has a TAB account does not need a Betcha account for betting reasons; they need it only if Betcha’s sports product genuinely suits them better than TAB’s.

What offshore names look like, set against TAB NZ

The three offshore names below are listed because New Zealand punters meet them, rated on the same criteria as TAB and Betcha, and marked “not licensed in New Zealand.” They are not a recommendation and not a ranking.

Winz.io — Winz.io markets itself as a crypto-friendly sportsbook and accepts BTC, ETH, LTC, BCH, DOGE, USDT, BNB, ADA, TRX, XRP and SOL, with deposits made by connecting a crypto wallet rather than typing in a card. The site advertises no deposit limits and instant withdrawals. Winz.io lists Anjouan and Tobique licences, holder Novatrix SRL — neither gives it any right to take bets from people in New Zealand. There is no New Zealand complaints route and no New Zealand harm-minimisation framework behind it. For a New Zealand punter who already holds crypto and accepts the DIA warnings, the draw is the crypto rail and the absence of a deposit ceiling the operator publishes; the cost is the loss of every New Zealand protection that goes with TAB NZ.

The comparison at a glance

The New Zealand-licensed pair is the only pair inside the law. The third row is the figure of the offshore offer a New Zealand punter actually meets. The Skrill column shows why “sports betting with Skrill” and “sports betting in New Zealand” are two different questions: Skrill is the rail; the law is the gatekeeper.

What the comparison does not cover

This page does not give a multi-brand list of offshore sportsbooks rated by the same criteria, because reading them at scale implies a recommendation this page will not make. The cluster that’s upstream of the brands list here is the same as the cluster the offshore shortlist serves — one offshore brand illustrates the gap between what is marketed at a New Zealand audience and what the New Zealand law permits.

How Skrill works for betting, for the punter who picks that rail

Funding the wallet

A Skrill account is funded from a bank transfer, a card, or a Paysafe or Neteller transfer. The funding rail is the step most cards charge a percentage on; Skrill’s own fee schedule is the reference. A New Zealand punter funding Skrill from a New Zealand bank is paying whatever Skrill’s local bank-deposit fee is — usually free, occasionally a small flat fee for an international route. From there, Skrill balance is what moves to the betting operator.

The deposit at the bookmaker

A Skrill-to-bookmaker deposit is, on the bookmaker’s side, a Skrill merchant payment. The bookmaker credits the betting account the moment Skrill confirms the deposit. The deposit is usually instant; the bookmaker’s own minimum deposit applies, and the bookmaker’s own terms say whether Skrill deposits qualify for a welcome promotion or are excluded from it.

The withdrawal back to Skrill

A bookmaker withdrawal back to Skrill is the route many offshore books process fastest. Skrill withdrawal approval by the bookmaker is typically a few hours to a day; Skrill’s own ledger update is the same day. The punter’s choice from there is to leave the Skrill balance in Skrill — useful for the next betting session, but Skrill’s wallet does not pay interest — or to withdraw back to a New Zealand bank, where Skrill’s bank-withdrawal fee applies.

The fees, in the order they hit

The first fee a New Zealand punter hits is the Skrill funding fee (if any). The second fee is Skrill’s currency-conversion fee if the punter deposits in NZD and the bookmaker settles in EUR — Skrill converts at the mid-market rate plus a published percentage. The third fee is the bookmaker’s own fee, which is usually free on Skrill rails. The fourth fee is the Skrill-to-bank fee when the punter wants the bank balance back. Summing the four fees provides an accurate picture of the total rail cost.

The currency trap

Skrill’s headline feature — multi-currency balances — is also the place where most punters lose money without noticing. Leaving a EUR balance in a EUR bookmaker means no conversion fee. Withdrawing that EUR balance back to a New Zealand bank means Skrill converts EUR to NZD at its published rate minus its published fee. The punter who chose EUR as the bookmaker-currency to avoid the deposit-side conversion takes the conversion on the way back.

Where Skrill does not help

Skrill does not move money from TAB NZ to a punter’s wallet; TAB NZ takes New Zealand rails. Skrill does not pull money out of an offshore bookmaker that the bookmaker has refused to release. Skrill does not, and is not supposed to, arbitrate a dispute between a New Zealand punter and an operator that breaks its own terms. The wallet is a rail, and a rail is only as good as the operator at either end.

Skrill at a glance: what the wallet is and what it costs

Who owns Skrill and where it started

Skrill launched as Moneybookers in London on 27 July 2001, was rebranded to Skrill starting in September 2011 and completed the transition by 2013. CVC Capital Partners acquired it in 2013 for €600 million, having been bought by Investcorp in 2007; Optimal Payments (later Paysafe) acquired it in 2015 for €1.1 billion. Skrill now sits inside Paysafe Limited alongside Neteller and paysafecard, and the group’s regulator is the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority for e-money issuance. The Paysafe group is the underwriter for Skrill’s e-money licence, which is what makes Skrill a regulated wallet rather than a free-floating prepaid balance.

The products Skrill carries

Skrill handles online payments, money transfers, card payments, bank transfers and conversion of funds to cryptocurrency. International money transfer launched in February 2018; cryptocurrency trading launched in July 2018. The breadth is what makes Skrill usable in places where cards or banks do not run — which is part of why it is so common at offshore sportsbooks that target markets where card rails are fragile.

Sponsorship and reputation

Skrill has sponsored the European Poker Tour, the English football National League, AC Milan since May 2020 and Leeds United since March 2021. A 2009-era customer-data exposure affecting around 4.5 million records was discovered in October 2015. The brand has had time and money to settle into the betting public’s eye; that is what makes it a default rail at many offshore books, not what makes it a regulated New Zealand product.

What it is not

Skrill is not a bank. Skrill balances are not deposits insured by the FSCS or any equivalent New Zealand scheme. Skrill itself does not insure balances against operator failure. A punter who loads Skrill and sends the balance to an offshore bookmaker, then asks Skrill to recover it after the bookmaker refuses to pay, is asking the wrong counterparty — the right counterparty is the bookmaker, in the bookmaker’s jurisdiction.

Worked example: where a $50 stake on the All Blacks ends up

A New Zealand punter wants to back the All Blacks at $2.10. The punter holds the stake in a New Zealand bank account. Three possible rails and three different end positions. To keep the example readable, the punter’s bet wins outright, and the lines below describe what lands, not what the operator invites.

Rail one — TAB NZ on the TAB app. The punter deposits NZ$50 into TAB NZ by debit card. TAB NZ pays out at $2.10 decimal odds on a winning single. The return is NZ$50 × $2.10 = NZ$105, of which NZ$50 is the stake and NZ$55 is the profit. The payout returns to the TAB NZ wallet and can be withdrawn to the punter’s bank. No currency conversion, no Skrill fees, no offshore rail. TAB NZ’s own terms set the in-app timing; the helpline and self-exclusion tools sit alongside the bet slip.

Rail two — an offshore bookmaker funded by Skrill. The punter transfers NZ$50 from a New Zealand bank into Skrill. Skrill charges a fee on funding (set on Skrill’s fee schedule; small in this configuration). The punter transfers NZ$50 from Skrill to the bookmaker. The bookmaker credits the account in the bookmaker’s settlement currency — sometimes NZD, sometimes EUR — and converts at its own rate if the bookmaker settles in a non-NZD currency. The bet wins at $2.10; the bookmaker returns NZ$50 × $2.10 (or €46.50 × $2.10 if the bookmaker settled in EUR and converted at the bookmaker’s rate) back to Skrill. Skrill credits the wallet, and the punter can either re-deposit or withdraw to a New Zealand bank, paying Skrill’s bank-withdrawal fee. The New Zealand-rail points earned on the deposit at TAB NZ do not transfer. The TAB NZ safer-gambling tools do not apply.

Rail three — Winz.io funded by crypto. The punter buys crypto on a New Zealand exchange, sends it to a personal wallet, then connects that wallet to Winz.io. The bookmaker pays $2.10 on a winning bet. The punter can withdraw the crypto and the winnings back to the personal wallet in minutes or hours, then back to a New Zealand exchange. The cost is the exchange’s buy-sell spread and the network fee. The New Zealand-rail points do not transfer. The TAB NZ safer-gambling tools do not apply. The gambling duty the operator pays is New Zealand online gambling duty (12% of profits from 1 July 2024, stepping to 16% from 1 January 2027) — paying the duty does not make the offer lawful for the operator to serve a New Zealand resident.

The three rails return roughly the same headline winnings, but the costs and the protections sit at very different points on the page. Rail one keeps the punter inside the New Zealand framework. Rails two and three run faster and looser, but the New Zealand side of the deal is empty.

Working the rail cost: how much Skrill actually takes

A New Zealand punter funds Skrill with NZ$50, sends the balance to an offshore bookmaker, wins the bet at $2.10, withdraws the winnings back to Skrill, and then withdraws the Skrill balance to a New Zealand bank. The four fees most likely to hit:

• Funding fee. Most Skrill bank-deposit routes are free, but a card-funded Skrill top-up carries a published percentage. Skrill’s fee page sets the number.
• Conversion fee. If the bookmaker settles in EUR and the Skrill balance is NZD, Skrill converts at the mid-market rate plus Skrill’s published percentage. The fee is between 1% and 4% depending on the currency pair and the rate locked in.
• Bookmaker fee. Most bookmakers do not charge on Skrill rails; the rare one that does will state it on the cashier page.
• Withdrawal-to-bank fee. Skrill’s bank-withdrawal fee is a small flat fee in the cheapest configuration, larger in others. Skrill’s fee page sets the figure.

A Skill-funded round-trip on a NZ$50 stake typically costs the punter somewhere between zero and a few dollars in fees, depending on the funding route, the conversion pair and the withdrawal route. Where the punter can avoid currency conversion — settle in NZD where the bookmaker allows, withdraw to a NZD bank account where Skrill allows — the round-trip cost is low. Where conversion cannot be avoided, the cost climbs into a band that the punter can weigh before laying the bet.

The honest read is to add the four fees, not to subtract any one of them. A bookmaker’s “free withdrawal” claim refers to the bookmaker’s fee only. Skrill’s “no conversion fee” claim refers to settlements in the wallet’s base currency only. Each party’s no-fee claim is correct, and neither tells the whole story.

Who each path suits

The TAB NZ punter

The New Zealand punter whose betting is recreational and within budget — All Blacks tests, Super Rugby Pacific, Melbourne Cup day, the occasional Warriors match — has the cleanest experience on TAB or Betcha. The rail is New Zealand, the currency is NZD, the safer-gambling tools are inside the app and the helpline is on the same screen. The trade-off is the absence of any wallet-rail beyond the New Zealand rails the operator supports; Skrill is not in that set.

The Skrill-funded offshore punter

The New Zealand punter who already holds a Skrill balance — left over from a previous offshore betting account, or saved up in Skrill specifically because the punter does not want a card on file at a bookmaker — is the audience the offshore books write their Skrill-friendly cashier pages for. The trade-off is the one this page has named: New Zealand law targets the operator, DIA warns players of the risks, and the punter has no New Zealand complaints route. The Skrill-side experience will be perfectly smooth.

The crypto-native offshore punter

The crypto-funded offshore punter has the fastest rail of all, from connected wallet to withdrawal back to the same wallet. Winz.io is the example on this page. The trade-off is the same as the Skrill-funded offshore punter’s, with the additional piece that a New Zealand punter funding from a New Zealand exchange may be asked the KYC question by the exchange and the bookmaker in turn. Both have their own rules on where the funds came from.

The punter who has stepped over their own line

The punter in the harder moment — betting more than planned, chasing losses, hiding the statement from a partner — needs the punter-side answer, not the rail-side one. The Gambling Helpline is 0800 654 655, with text on 8006, free and 24 hours. The TAB NZ app carries deposit-limit and self-exclusion tools that take a minute to set. An offshore bookmaker’s customer-service agent can close an account on request, in most cases, but will not steer the punter towards the helpline, and the helpline is the part the punter most needs.

Edge cases worth knowing

The Skrill account in someone else’s name

A punter who lets a friend or family member use their Skrill account to fund a betting account does not get the friendly side of either party’s terms when the betting account is closed for “use by a third party”. The right structure is the punter’s own Skrill account funding the punter’s own betting account, with the punter’s own name on both, and the punter’s own New Zealand ID on the betting account where the operator asks for it.

The currency locked in at signup

A punter signing up at an offshore bookmaker chooses a settlement currency, often before the first deposit. Where the punter picks EUR to take advantage of a EUR-denominated welcome offer, the punter is locked into EUR for the life of the account. Skrill withdrawal back to a New Zealand bank converts at Skrill’s rate minus its fee. Picking the book’s headline currency for the headline bonus can cost more than the headline bonus.

The “bonus bet” framing at TAB NZ

TAB NZ runs “bonus bets” promotions; no New Zealand rule was found that caps the size of a TAB NZ bonus bet or that constrains its turnover requirement. TAB NZ’s own terms set the size and the wagering requirement, and the wagering requirement sits in the same place the bet slip sits. The Marketing Standards Authority’s and ASA’s gambling codes apply; the headline number on the welcome banner is not a number the punter can assume without reading the terms beside it.

The greyhound code closing

From 1 August 2026 greyhound racing closes in stages. From that date an offshore bookmaker may not take bets on greyhound races either, because section 74AAA covers them as racing bets. A punter with greyhound positions open at an offshore book at that date has the bookmaker’s own terms on voiding or settling those positions; there is no New Zealand backstop for an offshore bookmaker. The simpler move is to settle greyhound positions before the closure date.

The 1 January 2027 step-up in duty

Online gambling duty on offshore operators moves from 12% to 16% of profits on 1 January 2027. The duty is on the operator’s profits, not on the punter’s stake, but the operator has a habit of adjusting its margin and its terms when its duty changes. A punter watching the rail at the end of 2026 may see a different offer at the start of next year. The rail’s law changes on the same schedule.

Frequently asked questions

Can Skrill be used on betting sites?

Yes, in the sense that Skrill is a regulated e-money wallet that supports payments to many online merchants, and offshore sportsbooks that market internationally usually list Skrill in their cashier. No, in the sense that TAB NZ — the only provider lawfully offering racing and sports betting to people in New Zealand under section 74AAA of the Racing Industry Act 2020 — does not list Skrill among its deposit methods. Skrill works as a rail into the offshore bookmaker side of the question. It does not work as a rail into the New Zealand-licensed side.

Do any sports betting sites accept Skrill?

Yes. A range of offshore sportsbooks — across both crypto-native and traditional brands — publish Skrill in their cashier pages, alongside cards, bank transfers and country-specific rails. The published list at any one bookmaker changes when the operator’s payment team renegotiates the merchant agreement with Skrill or its acquirer. The New Zealand-betting condition on each of those operators is the same one section 74AAA names: the operator may not lawfully take bets from people in New Zealand, and Skrill’s role in the rail does not change the operator’s status.

What betting apps use Skrill?

Several offshore sportsbook apps list Skrill in their cashier pages, alongside cards and crypto-wallets. Inside New Zealand the lawful apps are TAB NZ’s TAB and Betcha, and the TAB NZ cashier takes New Zealand rails rather than Skrill. A punter who lives in both an offshore book’s app and the TAB NZ app will fund one from a Skrill wallet and the other from a New Zealand bank, and the two wallets settle in two separate places.

Which payment methods does TAB NZ accept, and where are they listed?

TAB NZ’s deposit methods are set in TAB NZ’s own terms and listed inside the TAB NZ cashier — the in-app deposit screen on TAB or Betcha, and the corresponding desktop page. The current set typically includes bank deposit, debit card (Visa and Mastercard), POLi and in-app wallet top-ups. Skrill is not in that set. There is no statutory New Zealand rule on which deposit methods betting accounts may carry; the published list on TAB NZ’s cashier page is the only source that is current.

Which bookmaker may lawfully take sports and racing bets in New Zealand?

TAB New Zealand does, on its two online brands TAB and Betcha, under section 74AAA of the Racing Industry Act 2020, which took effect on 28 June 2025 and removed every other operator’s lawful basis. There is no licensing route for another bookmaker and no register of betting licences, because there is only the one lawful provider. The Department of Internal Affairs told providers serving New Zealand to withdraw with immediate effect and continues to monitor compliance under the Gambling Act 2003.

What does a player lose by betting with a bookmaker that has no New Zealand licence?

A New Zealand player at an unlicensed offshore bookmaker loses the New Zealand side of the deal: TAB NZ’s safer-gambling tools (deposit limits, time-outs, self-exclusion that spans both TAB brands), the New Zealand harm-minimisation framework, the regulator’s complaints route, and the New Zealand consumer law that holds unspent credits. The Department of Internal Affairs warns that overseas operators may not return unspent credits and may not pay out large wins. New Zealand law targets the operator; no published penalty for a player was found. The legal status of an offshore bet for a New Zealand punter remains unsettled, and the gap between operator-friendly marketing and New Zealand protection is the practical cost of the rail.

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