Gambling harm is often framed around why somebody could not stop betting, but a new Hāpai Te Hauora campaign is asking a very different question — what was designed to keep them gambling in the first place?
Launched for Gambling Harm Awareness Week, which runs from 31 August to 6 September, HOOKED aims to expose some of the marketing, psychological and design techniques used to attract people to gambling and encourage them to keep playing.
The online campaign features creators and storytellers Joe Daymond, Montel Tivoli and Tahu Hollis, using relatable content to explore how gambling can be normalised through sport, social media and group culture.
It also examines casino environments, online targeting and one of gambling’s most persistent attractions — the belief that with the right strategy, knowledge or luck, someone can eventually beat the house.
Looking at the game behind the game
Hāpai Te Hauora Chief Operating Officer Jason Alexander says gambling harm continues to be too easily treated as an individual failure rather than examining the environment surrounding the person gambling.
HOOKED deliberately shifts that focus.
Instead of blaming individuals for becoming caught in harmful gambling, the campaign examines how gambling products and environments are constructed to capture attention, encourage continued play and bring people back.
That distinction matters because gambling harm can extend far beyond the person placing the bet.
Financial losses can affect rent, groceries and household bills. Harm can flow into relationships, mental wellbeing and the wider whānau.
For Hāpai, understanding those wider systems is part of protecting mana rather than attaching shame to people experiencing harm.
Sport and gambling increasingly intertwined
One of the areas examined by HOOKED is the relationship between gambling and sport.
Betting products can sit alongside sporting coverage, conversations between friends and social-media content, making gambling appear increasingly integrated into the experience of following a game.
For rangatahi in particular, that creates questions about how gambling brands and gambling-style behaviour are encountered online and how quickly betting can become normalised within peer groups.
HOOKED aims to give people the tools to recognise those influences rather than simply telling whānau what they should or should not do.
The objective is greater awareness of the red flags and more informed conversations before gambling becomes harmful.
Online casinos make the conversation more urgent
The campaign also arrives ahead of a significant change to New Zealand’s gambling environment.
A regulated online casino market is expected from 2027, increasing the importance of understanding how digital gambling products are marketed and designed.
Unlike traditional gambling venues, online gambling can potentially follow people wherever their phone goes.
Digital platforms can use notifications, promotions and targeted marketing to encourage users to return, while the speed and convenience of online transactions can reduce the distance between deciding to gamble and actually placing money at risk.
That makes understanding the psychology behind online gambling increasingly important as Aotearoa prepares for the new regulatory environment.
Rangatahi helping tell the story
Throughout September, Hāpai will complement HOOKED with information about gambling psychology, rangatahi-led creative content and locally developed stories from partners around the motu.
The campaign has been created with creative agency Mahi Tahi and will run across social and digital platforms.
The approach is deliberately conversational.
Hāpai says the objective is not policing behaviour. It is helping people understand what may be influencing their decisions, recognise when gambling is becoming harmful and know how to support somebody they are worried about.
Support without judgement
Awareness, however, is only useful if people know where to turn next.
The campaign connects whānau with Pātea, a free kaupapa Māori digital gambling-harm platform providing information and practical tools alongside lived-experience stories and connections with counselling and local support.
It is available around the clock and has been designed as a judgement-free space for people seeking help for themselves or somebody they care about.
That kaupapa sits at the heart of Hāpai’s message for Gambling Harm Awareness Week.
The person experiencing gambling harm is not the problem that needs to be marketed against or shamed into changing.
Understanding the systems designed to keep people gambling, recognising the warning signs and making culturally appropriate support easier to reach could provide whānau with a much stronger hand.
HOOKED runs throughout September. More information is available at gamblingharm.nz, with free kaupapa Māori gambling-harm information and support available through patea.nz.
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