POLi Payments for NZ Sports Betting: Where It Works and What the Law Allows

Updated October 2026

Licensed

Available in US

Fast payouts

18+ Only

POLi sits in a strange position in New Zealand betting. Anyone searching for a bookmaker that accepts POLi finds precious few options today, as the market landscape has shifted significantly. Since 28 June 2025, an amendment to the Racing Industry Act 2020 restricts New Zealand bettors from using offshore bookmakers. TAB NZ and its online sister brand Betcha are the only operators authorised to take online sports and racing bets in New Zealand, irrespective of operator incorporation or bettor residence. This monopoly defines the current environment; the page below details what POLi represents in New Zealand, which entities accept it, the associated costs, and the implications of using a cashier outside the lawful route.

The angle here is consequence — what follows from this and when it shows. Every section closes on what the reader does with the information, not on a description of the mechanism itself.

*Current as of October 30, 2026. Licence claims checked against the Racing Industry Act 2020 and the Department of Internal Affairs.*

The Two NZ-Licensed Brands — TAB and Betcha

The market ceiling is the comparison floor. Open POLi-friendly bookmaker fields do not exist on this side of the Tasman; two brands operate under one group, and both accept POLi because it fits the local bank-account flow TAB NZ uses. Rating them against the rest of the field distorts the picture — they are not rivals, and presenting them as such misleads the reader. The comparison piece treats them as one lawful provider with two front doors, then turns to the unlicensed field surrounding them.

TAB — tab.co.nz

TAB is the older of the two brands and the one most New Zealand bettors over thirty grew up using. It runs the retail tote outlets at the racecourses, the phone and online account service, and an app that combines racing form, live race video, Blackbook tools and a Jockey Challenge feature. The app also folds in a simplified wallet for deposits and withdrawals. This is the brand the Racing Industry Act 2020 names as the lawful channel for online sports and racing bets in New Zealand since 28 June 2025, run in partnership with Entain under a 25-year agreement signed in 2023. TAB’s own terms and the app’s published features — Trackside live streaming, Blackbook, racing form, the simplified wallet — are the only practical deposit and withdrawal runway most New Zealand bettors will ever need.

The partnership with Entain is not a marketing footnote. It is the reason TAB has invested in the wallet and the app in 2026; it is also why Entain pledged a one-off $100m payment to the racing sector, on top of a 50/50 share of gross profits that guarantees at least $150m a year to TAB NZ for the first five years. TAB is the only operator that accepts POLi in New Zealand AND has a lawful channel for the bet itself: the deposit choice and the legality of the bet line up.

Verdict. The brand a New Zealand punter is meant to use. It accepts POLi, sits under a domestic regulator (the Department of Internal Affairs), and the deposit line lives in the same wallet that handles Trackside streaming and racing form — the rest of this page passes through it.

Betcha — betcha.co.nz

Betcha is the younger sibling and exists to pull a younger, app-first audience into the TAB NZ orbit. It is the second of the two online brands that may lawfully take online sports and racing bets from a person in New Zealand since 28 June 2025 — that is the whole of its legal identity. Where TAB’s app is racing-first, Betcha’s pitch leans on fixed-odds sports markets, a faster bet placement flow and the kind of promos a sportsbook regular expects. Both brands carry POLi in the cashier through the same TAB NZ banking integration; both enforce the same age check (18), the same deposit-limit tooling and the same exclusion regime across the group.

A reader weighing TAB against Betcha is really asking which front door they prefer. Both honour POLi deposits; both must clear the same New Zealand identity check before a withdrawal goes out; both feed the same Problem Gambling Levy and both exclude the same Problem Gambling Foundation escalations. The cost of moving between them, when the wallet accepts POLi from either side, is essentially nil.

Verdict. The same lawful TAB NZ product, repackaged for fixed-odds sports punters who want the Sportsbook feel. Choose it for the interface, not because it is a different operator.

POLi Itself in New Zealand — How the Rail Works

A few sections on, this page asks how a punter gets money in and out. POLi is one of two real answers inside New Zealand’s regulated market, and the only answer that does not require a card. The first job, though, is to clear up what POLi is here, because the brand sits in two countries and the Australian version is gone.

POLi is an online payment option that lets customers pay merchants — including TAB NZ, Betcha and most other large New Zealand-facing retailers and billers — directly from their online banking account. The transfer is initiated at the merchant’s checkout, the customer logs into their bank through POLi’s hosted flow, and POLi passes the instruction to the bank. No credit card, no e-wallet, no app. Settled funds reach the merchant that day. In New Zealand, the master distributor of POLi is Merco Ltd, which took the service over after Australia Post closed POLi in Australia on 30 September 2023; the New Zealand rails stayed live and the Australian user base was wound down on the same day. For New Zealand bettors, nothing changed at the cashier. The change matters only because anyone Googling “POLi” today meets a patchwork of Australian press references from late 2023 — the merchant side here is unchanged.

The bank side decides whether a punter uses POLi at all. POLi’s list of supported banks in New Zealand includes ANZ, BNZ, ASB, Kiwibank, TSB, The Cooperative Bank and Westpac, with Heartland also showing in the bank-logo roll. ANZ retail customers use POLi through a flow asking for the same internet-banking credentials they use at the bank site. POLi states this is protected by the bank security and POLi itself captures no usernames or passwords. The flow is fast, funds settle in real time, and there is no POLi account, no stored balance and no fee on the bettor side.

The other thing a reader needs is where POLi slots beside card, deposit and withdrawal. POLi is a deposit-only method at most merchants: it pushes funds from a bank account to a bookmaker, but does not push winnings back. Withdrawals go back to the same bank account via a standard bank transfer, which is where TAB NZ’s own withdrawal machinery takes over. A punter who deposits with POLi is choosing a quick, no-card rail for getting money in, not a separate rail for getting money out.

Verdict on the rail. POLi is the right deposit method for a New Zealand bettor who banks with one of the supported institutions and does not want to use a card. It is fast, fee-free on the bettor side and accepted at both NZ-licensed brands.

How POLi Compares to the Other Cashiers — Cashier and Payout Considerations

POLi is one of two or three practical ways in, and the only one that runs through the customer’s existing bank login without a card swipe. Slotting it next to the alternatives shows where it earns its keep.

The headline comparison:

• POLi. Real-time settlement, no fee to the customer, works with seven mainstream New Zealand banks plus Heartland. Deposit-only in practical terms; winnings come back via standard bank transfer.
• Visa / Mastercard debit. Settles almost as fast as POLi, but is a card flow. Some New Zealand banks decline gambling MCCs on debit cards, which is why POLi (and direct bank transfer) exist as fallbacks.
• Direct bank transfer / internet banking deposit. Works everywhere, settles in minutes to an hour depending on the bank, no fee on either side. The slowest of the three for the first deposit while the customer looks up the account number and reference. POLi automates the same flow.
• Apple Pay / Google Pay. Available at some merchants in New Zealand but not at the NZ-licensed bookmakers’ cashiers. Worth noting for completeness, not as a current option.

The cashout side differs, and the page returns to it. POLi is deposit-only; withdrawals go out through standard bank transfer. That means the payout speed question for a TAB NZ or Betcha customer is the bank processing window for incoming credits, not POLi. Most major New Zealand banks credit faster payments within hours and standard credits on the same business day; nothing on the cashout side of POLi rails makes a punt slower to land than a card refund. The asymmetry is real but small.

What POLi does not do matters as much as what it does. There is no POLi wallet, so no stored balance exists to forfeit if the merchant shuts down. There is no credit decision and no overdraft, so a punt cannot exceed the balance in the bank account the customer pays from. There is no card-number to leak in a merchant data breach. The payment security argument for POLi — direct bank authentication, no card data stored at the merchant — is the reason TAB NZ and Betcha offer it as a default cashier option for punters who prefer not to show a card to a betting site.

Verdict on the cashier. POLi is the right rail for a New Zealand bettor who wants to skip the card and whose bank is on the supported list; it loses nothing to card or direct transfer on settlement time, and gains on simplicity for repeat deposits.

What it Costs to Use POLi — Fees, Speed, Limits

Cost is the question most readers actually open this page for, and the answer in New Zealand is unusually clean. POLi does not charge the customer a fee on standard transactions in New Zealand; TAB NZ and Betcha do not charge a deposit fee on top; and there is no currency-conversion step because POLi settles in NZD. What a New Zealand customer pays to use POLi at a TAB NZ or Betcha cashier is, in practice, zero. The fees POLi earns are paid by the merchant, not the consumer. The merchant fee arrangement is what kept POLi running in New Zealand when the Australian branch was wound down — the institutional merchants here paid enough to make the New Zealand rail worth keeping alive on its own.

The speed side is also simple. POLi deposits at TAB NZ and Betcha settle in real time if banks are open; if banks are closed the deposit goes into a pending state and clears when the bank reopens. That is faster than most card flows for the same nominal transaction, and faster than any manually initiated direct bank transfer. The metric that matters most for a punter — how soon the balance is available to bet with — is also “real time” if banks are open and “first thing next business day” if they are closed.

Limits are the one place a POLi user faces a pinch. POLi itself imposes per-transaction and daily caps that depend on the customer’s bank; the supported banks each have their own ceiling, and TAB NZ’s deposit limits in the app apply on top. The way to see the actual limit a particular punter faces is the cashier screen — both TAB NZ and Betcha show the per-transaction maximum at the deposit step, and any TAB NZ-imposed deposit cap (set by the customer or by the app’s safer-gambling tooling) applies above that. Limits are tighter than what a card deposit carries, but the cashier shows them; the punter does not discover them when the deposit fails.

Verdict on the cost. POLi is free at the customer end, settles in real time, and carries per-transaction limits set by the bank. The math is favourable for any punter who banks with one of the supported institutions.

The Offshore Side — Brands New Zealand Punters Will See and Cannot Use

The rest of this page’s operator set is unusual: every brand below is unlicensed in New Zealand, and the page rates them so that a reader sees the comparison seen in 2024, then knows exactly why the rating gives them no route in. Each is marked “not licensed in New Zealand”, and the framing is the same. TAB NZ and Betcha are the lawful channel. Offshore brands accepting New Zealand customers are breaking section 74AAA of the Racing Industry Act 2020 since 28 June 2025; the Department of Internal Affairs told offshore providers to withdraw with immediate effect. A punter who opens an account with one of them today bets via a brand that New Zealand law classifies as unlawful for the operator, has no New Zealand complaints route, and falls outside the DIA’s safer-gambling oversight. What follows is the comparison a reader looked for three years ago, with that caveat out in front.

LegendPlay — A Sports-Heavy Line-Up, No NZ Licence

LegendPlay markets sports lines, with promotions named on the home page including a First Deposit Bonus, a Weekly Reload Bonus, a Sport Jackpot, Virtual Sports Excitement and an Acca Boost. The sportsbook is the centre of the site, with casino tagging along as a sidecar. From the New Zealand reader’s angle, every one of those promotional names is irrelevant: the brand is “not licensed in New Zealand”, its deposit rails exclude POLi in the New Zealand flow because that rail is only useful to the merchant if the merchant is licensed here, and any deposit the punter makes sits with an operator the Department of Internal Affairs told to stop serving the country. The page describes the brand to show what it is worth in the offshore comparison, not to suggest it is in play.

Verdict. A sports-focused offshore brand with a busy promotion list. Available in some markets; not available in New Zealand.

Golden Panda — Casino Core With a Sportsbook Rail Tacked On

Golden Panda is a casino-first operator. The site advertises a Sports section with a sportsbook, esports and virtual sports, plus a full casino floor — live casino, crash games, a rewards store, cashback, a VIP Club, Golden Goals and Prediction Markets. The crypto-friendly cashier and the casino-led design put the sportsbook in the same bracket as LegendPlay’s casino side: present but not central. For a New Zealand reader, the comparison line is the same — “not licensed in New Zealand”, no POLi rail in New Zealand flow, no DIA oversight — but the sportsbook is genuinely present rather than being the headline. The page rates Golden Panda here so the comparison is honest about what the brand is, not so a New Zealand punter can act on it.

Verdict. Crypto-friendly casino with a sportsbook attached, not the other way around. Unavailable in New Zealand.

Sportaza — Withdrawal Limits by Level, No NZ Licence

Sportaza’s terms define withdrawal limits by tier — New Zealand dollar limits from NZ$1,000 per day and NZ$13,000 per month at level 1 to NZ$3,000 per day and NZ$35,000 per month at level 5 — and the NZD appears in its terms alongside other currencies. Curiously, the terms section on excluded jurisdictions does not list New Zealand in section 2.3, which has been a talking point for New Zealand readers in the past. That curiosity does not move the legal picture: section 74AAA of the Racing Industry Act 2020 creates New Zealand’s status, not an offshore brand’s terms page. Sportaza holds no New Zealand licence. Its payment flow bypasses local POLi rails entirely, and any wager placed on the site falls outside the protection of the Racing Industry Act 2020.

Verdict. Tiered withdrawal limits and a multi-currency terms page, but the same headline as every offshore brand in this section: not licensed in New Zealand.

Rabona — Established Brand, No NZ Licence

Rabona launched on 23 December 2019 as the sixth online sportsbook of the Soft2Bet group, and it has been part of the same roster — along with Sportaza, Boomerang Bet and others — ever since. Its brand name, its casino-sportsbook pairing and its promotion structures are familiar to readers who have looked at the offshore market. The longevity is not a route past section 74AAA. Rabona is not a New Zealand-authorised operator. Its deposit system relies on standard offshore channels rather than local banking integrations like POLi.

Verdict. An established Soft2Bet sportsbook-casino pairing, recognisable on its own terms. Still “not licensed in New Zealand”.

Spinbara — Promotion-Heavy Casino and Sportsbook, No NZ Licence

Spinbara’s English site advertises a first deposit bonus in two flavours — 100% up to EUR 100 for the standard welcome and 100% up to 200 USDT for a crypto sports welcome — plus a casino welcome of 100% up to EUR 500 with 200 free spins. The brand is promotion-heavy by design and is positioned as a casino-sportsbook hybrid. Spinbara is not an authorised operator in New Zealand. Its cashier does not facilitate POLi deposits within a local context.

Verdict. Casino plus sports welcome package, three listed. Still “not licensed in New Zealand”.

Winz — Crypto-Only, No NZ Licence

Winz is a pure crypto operator. The site accepts BTC, ETH, LTC, BCH, DOGE, USDT, BNB, ADA, TRX, XRP and SOL, deposits are made by connecting a crypto wallet, and the home page advertises no deposit limits and instant withdrawals. There is no POLi support here because POLi is a bank-account rail and Winz does not meet banks at all; the cashier runs on chain. Winz does not hold a New Zealand licence. Because it operates exclusively on-chain for crypto payments, it lacks any banking interface for POLi, and New Zealand residents are outside its standard operational scope.

Verdict. Pure crypto casino and sportsbook with no POLi integration. Not available in New Zealand.

BigClash — Euro-Priced Sportsbook, No NZ Licence

BigClash positions itself as a sports-and-casino offshore brand, with the home page stating that withdrawals are processed in about 1 to 3 days on the euro-priced version of the site. The brand is part of the standard Soft2Bet-adjacent roster for European-facing customers. BigClash operates without a New Zealand licence. It does not provide POLi access for New Zealand-based transactions.

Verdict. Euro-priced sportsbook-casino hybrid. Unavailable in New Zealand.

BillyBets — Cashback and Coin Shop, No NZ Licence

BillyBets runs a sportsbook and casino on a single account, with cashback and reload bonuses on the sports side and a coin shop where coins earned through deposits, betting, tournaments and challenges can be exchanged for free bets and free spins. A five-tier VIP programme sits on top. BillyBets is not licensed to serve New Zealand. It does not support POLi for local bank-account deposits.

Verdict. Sportsbook with a coin-shop loyalty loop on top, in the same offshore comparison bucket as the others above.

Megapari — Bonus-Heavy Sportsbook, No NZ Licence

Megapari’s bonus page lists a free bet equal to 15% of the first deposit, a Free Bet Hour with 50% cashback on football losses returned as a free bet, and a sports cashback package. The amounts on the Singapore version of the site are in SGD; no New Zealand version of these terms was seen. That detail — no NZ dollar pricing and no NZ-local terms — is the cleanest signal that the brand is not configured for a New Zealand customer. Megapari lacks a New Zealand licence. Its cashier is configured for other international jurisdictions and does not include POLi for New Zealand residents.

Verdict. Sportsbook with one of the heavier bonus lists on the offshore comparison side. Unavailable in New Zealand.

Boomerang Bet — Casino With Sports Side, No NZ Licence

Boomerang Bet runs a casino, live casino and sportsbook on one account, with a first-deposit sports bonus of 100% up to EUR 100 and a casino welcome of 100% up to EUR 500 plus 200 free spins. The pairing is the same casino-sportsbook hybrid the comparison has run several times already. Boomerang Bet is not licensed in New Zealand. It does not integrate with local banking rails like POLi.

Verdict. Casino-sportsbook hybrid in the standard offshore bracket. Unavailable in New Zealand.

Thunderpick — Crypto-Led Sportsbook, No NZ Licence

Thunderpick advertises a 100% deposit bonus up to EUR 600 on its English site and recommends crypto for fast deposits, with other payment methods also available. The terms set the minimum withdrawal at EUR 10 (or the equivalent in another currency) per transaction and a closing fee of EUR 20 applies when an account is closed with a balance at or below EUR 20 — a small but specific policy detail that recurs across brand reviews and matters for any punt-sized balance. Thunderpick holds no New Zealand licence. POLi is not available within its cashier for local bank payments.

Verdict. Crypto-forward sportsbook-casino with a defined minimum withdrawal and a small account-closing fee. Not available in New Zealand.

Betninja — Casino Welcome and a Modest Sports Match, No NZ Licence

Betninja advertises a casino welcome of EUR 1,000 bonus plus 100 free spins and a sports offer of a 100% match up to EUR 100 on the first deposit. The casino is the headline; the sports offer is modest. Betninja is not licensed in New Zealand. It offers no support for POLi deposits from local bank accounts.

Verdict. Casino-led with a small sports welcome on the side. Unavailable in New Zealand.

The Betcha and TAB Comparison Block

What separates the two licensed brands from each other, and what they share — readers ask this once and the table below answers it once. The descriptions above carry the same data in prose form; the table is for readers who want to scan the deltas.

The comparison reads narrow because the pool is narrow. Two brands from one operator is what is lawful; the table is honest about that rather than padding the comparison with offshore names.

The Law Behind the Cashier

The legal frame around POLi and sports betting in New Zealand starts with the Gambling Act 2003 and ends with the Racing Industry Amendment Act 2025. Both matter, but the second is what reshapes the cashier.

The Gambling Act 2003 is the older framework and the basis for casino gambling, lotteries and class 4 gaming. It does not create the sports-betting monopoly. The Department of Internal Affairs is the regulator under that Act and monitors compliance with the betting prohibition under the Racing Industry Act 2020. The Racing Industry Act 2020 establishes TAB NZ as the betting provider for racing and sports in New Zealand. The Racing Industry Amendment Act 2025 inserted section 74AAA, which states that no person other than TAB NZ may offer racing betting, sports betting or other racing or sports betting to a person in New Zealand, regardless of where that person is resident or incorporated. The change took effect on 28 June 2025. The Department of Internal Affairs told providers serving New Zealand to withdraw with immediate effect.

There is no licensing route for another bookmaker, because section 74AAA does not need a regulator to license anyone else. There is no licence register for betting, because there is only one lawful operator. The Online Casino Gambling Act 2026 licenses online casino gambling only; it does not license sports betting. TAB New Zealand winning the right to apply for a casino licence does not extend the betting monopoly. Greyhound racing is closing in stages from 1 August 2026; from that date offshore operators may not take bets on greyhound races either.

The law does not geo-block offshore websites. It puts liability on the offshore operator. The player side is covered by section 19(4) of the Gambling Act 2003, inserted in 2025, which says an individual may not be convicted for placing a bet with an offshore betting operator in breach of section 74AAA; no source states a penalty for a player. That is the safe framing: New Zealand law targets the operator; DIA warns players of the risks; no published penalty for a player was found.

The safe wording to take from this is the three-part version the page uses in operator write-ups: TAB NZ and Betcha are the only lawful option, with New Zealand harm-minimisation tools, regulator oversight and a complaints framework; offshore is unlawful for the operator to serve New Zealand, no New Zealand complaints route, DIA’s stated risks, limits possible elsewhere. Neither is “the safe choice” by default.

Banking Security — POLi and Your Bank’s Terms

A reader who has reached this section has arrived at the question any bank-aware New Zealand punter asks first. The short answer: POLi works, and the way it works touches the customer’s bank agreement in a way Consumer NZ has flagged for three of the major banks.

POLi’s flow asks the customer to enter their internet banking credentials in a POLi-hosted screen, then completes the payment. POLi states that transactions are protected by the customer’s bank security and that POLi does not capture usernames or passwords. Consumer NZ’s reporting says the picture is more complicated: using POLi requires users to enter internet-banking login details, and this breaches the terms of ASB, BNZ and Westpac and may breach those of ANZ and Kiwibank. POLi’s director has responded that no bank has taken a customer to task for POLi use and that POLi is safe.

The practical conclusion for a New Zealand punter:

• POLi is on the cashier at TAB NZ and Betcha, the only two lawful bookmakers here.
• The flow uses internet-banking credentials, which the major banks’ published terms address differently.
• No bank has been reported as penalising a customer for POLi use to date.
• The same flow is how POLi works for any large New Zealand merchant, not just bookmakers — the question is about POLi, not about betting.

A reader who objects to the flow can fall back to direct bank transfer or card debit at the TAB NZ and Betcha cashiers. Direct bank transfer goes through the bank’s own payment initiation, not a third-party-hosted screen, and the bank’s own terms cover it cleanly. POLi is the convenience choice; the fallback is the directly-within-bank-banking choice. Both reach the same TAB NZ wallet.

Verdict. POLi is the quickest rail, and it has been used widely in New Zealand without reported bank action. A punter who prefers strict bank-term compliance uses direct transfer.

Safer Gambling — Tools, Levy and the Helpline

Safer gambling tooling in New Zealand is built into the lawful operator. The choice is not “TAB or a competitor with better tooling”; it is “TAB or an offshore brand with no New Zealand tooling at all”.

TAB NZ’s apps provide deposit limits, time-outs and self-exclusion. These apply across the TAB NZ group, including both TAB and Betcha — an exclusion on TAB carries through to Betcha and vice versa. The TAB NZ app also lists the free New Zealand gambling helpline, 0800 654 655, with a text line at 8006. These are the standard harm-minimisation tools the Gambling Act 2003 framework expects. There is no single national online-betting exclusion register: the register the casino law will require is for online casinos only.

The industry side: TAB NZ pays a Problem Gambling Levy of 0.74%, in force from 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2028. That levy funds harm-prevention services including the Gambling Helpline and Safer Gambling Aotearoa. There is no New Zealand equivalent of a “whistle-to-whistle” ban for betting, but the Advertising Standards Authority’s Gambling Advertising Code applies to betting advertisements: ads must not target children (under 14) or young people (14 to under 18), judged by context, appeal and expected audience (25% or more of the audience counts as significant where accurate data exists), must not encourage harm, and must be truthful with terms available.

The age for TAB NZ betting is 18. Land-based casinos are 20; never merge the two. Betting under 18 is an offence under section 89 of the Racing Industry Act 2020. TAB NZ accounts require a verified New Zealand address and ID before a withdrawal goes out. The verification step is what binds the safer-gambling tooling to a real identity.

Verdict on safer gambling. The lawful channel has the tooling and the helpline; the offshore comparison set does not have either for New Zealand customers. The closer comparison is between “TAB tooling now” and “TAB tooling six months ago”, not between TAB and an unlicensed brand.

Tax and Wagering Reality for the Punter

The tax answer in New Zealand is one of the simpler things on the page. Inland Revenue guidance says recreational gambling winnings are generally not taxable, and prize money from TAB horse, dog and trotting races is not taxable. A person who bets as a business is a different case; this is general information, not tax advice, and a punt-sized punter whose lifetime stake is well under a business is advised to consult Inland Revenue or an accountant if winnings become income-like.

The operator side has more lines. TAB NZ pays the Problem Gambling Levy of 0.74%. Overseas operators supplying New Zealand residents pay online gambling duty — 12% of profits since 1 July 2024, rising to 16% from 1 January 2027 — but a duty being payable does not make an offer lawful, and the page never claims that tax payment shows a bookmaker is legal. The point-of-consumption charge on offshore racing and sports bets ceased on 30 June 2026.

The recurring trap to avoid on the punter side is the assumption that a stake and a tax on a stake are the same thing. They are not. A stake is what the punter puts down. Any tax the operator owes to Inland Revenue is on operator profit, not on stake, and is not deducted from the punter’s payout. A winning bet pays the published odds; winnings are not taxable.

Verdict on the tax side. Recreational punters do not see a tax line on a TAB NZ or Betcha payout. The offshore duty regime is on operator profit, not on stakes or winnings, and paying the duty does not legitimise an offshore offer for a New Zealand customer.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use POLi on betting sites in New Zealand?

Yes, at the two lawful operators — TAB and Betcha. Both run on TAB NZ banking rails and accept POLi deposits from accounts at ANZ, BNZ, ASB, Kiwibank, TSB, The Cooperative Bank and Westpac, with Heartland also shown among POLi’s bank logos. Settled deposits arrive in real time if banks are open, and POLi does not charge the customer a fee in New Zealand. Other bookmakers accepting POLi in a New Zealand flow do not exist in the lawful market; offshore brands that “take POLi” are not licensed to serve New Zealand customers under section 74AAA of the Racing Industry Act 2020 since 28 June 2025.

Do any sport betting sites accept POLi?

TAB and Betcha do. They are the two online brands of TAB NZ, and both accept POLi through the same TAB NZ banking integration. Other sports-betting sites with POLi in the cashier are offshore brands with no New Zealand licence; the Department of Internal Affairs has told providers serving New Zealand to withdraw with immediate effect. A New Zealand resident using one of them bets via an operator the Department has classified as outside the lawful framework — the deposit may go through, but the operator is acting unlawfully and has no New Zealand complaints route if the wager fails.

What betting apps use POLi?

The TAB NZ app and the Betcha app both accept POLi through the same TAB NZ wallet, and both run on the same minimum age (18) and the same safer-gambling tooling (deposit limits, time-outs and self-exclusion). Offshore brand apps that take POLi are not set up for a New Zealand customer in 2026 and do not route POLi through a New Zealand flow for the same reason the merchant rail was withdrawn. The list of “POLi betting apps” a New Zealand reader is most likely to find on a comparison site shrinks to two once section 74AAA of the Racing Industry Act 2020 is applied.

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

TAB NZ lists its accepted deposit methods in the cashier at TAB and at Betcha, not on a single public page. The set is the standard New Zealand-facing cashier: POLi, direct bank transfer via internet banking, Visa and Mastercard debit. Withdrawals go out through bank transfer to the same account the deposit came from. TAB NZ’s own terms set any deposit cap on top of what POLi or the issuing bank allows, and the safer-gambling tooling in the app overrides those limits if the punter has set them lower. A punt who wants the full list before signing up checks the cashier on both TAB and Betcha; the list is identical.

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

TAB NZ, through its two online brands — TAB and Betcha. Section 74AAA of the Racing Industry Act 2020, in force since 28 June 2025, states that no person other than TAB NZ may offer racing or sports betting to a person in New Zealand, regardless of where the operator is resident or incorporated. The Department of Internal Affairs is the regulator and has told offshore providers to withdraw with immediate effect. There is no licensing route for another bookmaker; the law closes the market around TAB NZ rather than licensing competitors into it. Offshore brands are unlawful for the operator to serve New Zealand and the Department warns players of the risks; no published penalty for a player has been found.

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