Gambling in Niue: Laws, Permits and Online Casinos

Published by Casino News Daily editorial teamReviewed byFilip RadulovicOur editorial approach

Niue is a self-governing state in free association with New Zealand, with a resident population of about 1,680. Its gambling law is minimal and largely untested. There is no casino, no national lottery and no licensing regime for online gambling. The only gambling activities that Niuean law expressly authorises are small community fundraising games, such as raffles, housie (bingo), card games and coin-operated machines, which may be run only by sporting, recreational or community bodies holding a permit from the Chief of Police under the Gaming (Fees) Regulations 2005. New Zealand’s own gambling legislation, including its new online casino licensing law, does not extend to Niue. This guide sets out the legal framework, the position of players, taxation, anti-money-laundering supervision and recent developments, and identifies where the law could not be verified.

Key points

Permitted gambling is limited to permit-based raffles, housie or bingo, card games, coin-operated machines and instant prize games run by eligible sporting, recreational or community bodies, with low monetary limits and permit fees of NZ$10 to NZ$50.
Permits are issued by the Chief of Police; operating without a permit, or breaching a permit’s conditions, is an offence under the 2005 Regulations.
Niue has no casino. The Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering confirmed in its 2025 mutual evaluation that “there are no casinos” in Niue. Casino proposals floated in 2009 and 2010 did not lead to a licence.
No Niuean statute licenses or expressly prohibits online gambling, and no blocking or payment-restriction regime for gambling websites was identified.
New Zealand Acts passed after 1974 apply in Niue only at the request and with the consent of the Niue Assembly, so New Zealand’s Gambling Act 2003 and its 2026 online casino law do not govern gambling in Niue.

Last reviewed: 14 October 2026.

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Historical development

Niue was administered by New Zealand from 1901 until 1974, when it became self-governing in free association with New Zealand. Niueans are New Zealand citizens, and Niue relies significantly on development assistance from New Zealand, including direct budget support (APG mutual evaluation of Niue, 2025). The island’s small population and limited economy have shaped its legal system, including its gambling law, which was never developed into a full regulatory code.

For most of the twentieth century, gambling in Niue was governed by the criminal provisions inherited with the Niue Act 1966, a New Zealand statute that served as Niue’s basic constitutional and criminal law and which still contains a section on “gaming houses”. Community fundraising through raffles and housie has long been part of island life, but it was not regulated in detail until the Gaming (Fees) Regulations 2005, discussed below.

Niue’s wider experience with offshore finance is relevant background. Around the turn of the century Niue hosted an offshore banking sector. In June 2002 the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the international standard-setter on anti-money laundering, still listed Niue as a “non-cooperative country or territory”; its press release of 21 June 2002 recorded that Niue had enacted the International Banking Repeal Act 2002, in force from 5 June 2002, which would “eliminate Niue’s offshore banks by October 2002”. No reliable evidence was found that Niue ever issued licences for internet gambling during this period, and claims to that effect should be treated with caution.

The most concrete gambling proposal in Niue’s recent history concerned a land-based casino. In October 2009, RNZ reported that the government was considering inviting tenders for casino licences after a tourism report commissioned by the New Zealand Government; the then Premier said tenders could be called within about two months. In December 2010 the trade publication InterGame reported, citing Radio New Zealand, that the government was still considering a casino to support tourism, and that the Premier believed existing law contained provisions that would allow one but that new legislation might be needed to ensure it was properly managed. No casino licence was issued: the APG’s 2025 report states plainly that there are no casinos in Niue.

Legal framework

Checking gambling legislation and licensing

Constitutional position and the relationship with New Zealand

Article 28 of the Constitution of Niue, set out in the schedule to the Niue Constitution Act 1974, gives the Niue Assembly power to “make laws for the peace, order, and good government of Niue”. Section 3 of the Act provides that “Niue shall be self-governing”, while section 6 preserves New Zealand’s responsibilities for external affairs and defence. Under Article 36, an Act of the New Zealand Parliament passed on or after Constitution Day in 1974 does not extend to Niue as part of its law unless it expressly states that it does so at the request and with the consent of the Niue Assembly.

This point matters for gambling. New Zealand’s principal gambling statute, the Gambling Act 2003, and the online casino legislation passed in 2026 were both enacted long after 1974. No provision extending either of them to Niue was identified, and the general rule in Article 36 means that they do not form part of Niuean law. Niue’s gambling rules therefore come from its own legislation and from the older New Zealand law that was in force for Niue at self-government and has since been amended locally.

The Niue Act 1966

The Niue Act 1966 as published on PacLII (the Pacific Islands Legal Information Institute) contains Part V on criminal offences. Its table of contents includes section 176, headed “Gaming houses”, and section 176A, headed “Powers of Parliament to permit certain gambling activities”. The full text of these two sections could not be retrieved from the online consolidation for this review, so their precise wording and penalties are not stated here. The headings indicate that the Act combines a traditional prohibition on keeping premises for gaming with a power for the legislature to authorise specified gambling activities. Readers relying on these provisions should consult the official text held by the Niue Crown Law Office.

The Gaming (Fees) Regulations 2005

The detailed rules are in the Gaming (Fees) Regulations 2005, as consolidated on PacLII (legislation as at December 2006). The published text does not state the empowering provision under which they were made. Their main features are:

Permitted activities. Only the gambling activities listed in the Schedule are allowed, subject to the limits and fees stated there.
Eligible bodies. No person may permit gambling on premises except (a) a society incorporated under the Incorporated Societies Act 1908 whose principal objects are sport, recreation or community benefit, or (b) an unincorporated body with those objects that is substantially permanent, has a standing committee and operates a bank account. The gambling must take place on premises the body occupies or controls, and only under a permit.
Permit authority. Applications are made in writing to the Chief of Police, who may approve them in whole or in part, attach conditions or decline them.
Offences. Breaching the Regulations, or failing to comply with the terms or conditions of a permit, is an offence. The consolidated text on PacLII does not state a penalty.

The Schedule sets out the following activities, monetary limits and permit fees (in New Zealand dollars, Niue’s currency):

Permitted activity	Limit	Permit fee
Raffle (per raffle)	$500	$10
Major raffle (per raffle)	Over $500	$50
Housie or bingo (per session)	$100	$20
Housie or bingo (jackpot over a series of games)	$500	$20
Card games (per game, per session)	$50	$20
Coin-operated machines (per machine, per year)	$50	$20
Break-open, scratch card or other instant prize games	$50	$20

The Regulations do not mention casinos, lotteries run on a commercial basis, betting on sport or racing, or internet gambling. In practice, therefore, the lawful gambling market consists of small, permit-based community games.

Regulator and licensing model

Niue has no dedicated gambling regulator. The Chief of Police acts as the permitting authority under the 2005 Regulations and, with the police, is responsible for enforcement. The model is best described as restrictive authorisation: gambling is permitted only in specified low-stakes forms, by specified non-commercial bodies, under individual permits. There is no commercial licensing route, no published register of permit holders and no published statistics on the number of permits issued.

Enforcement has historically been light. In September 2022 the Broadcasting Corporation of Niue reported that, after years of weak enforcement, police considered unpermitted raffles and bingo had become widespread, including raffles sold through social media that earned individuals thousands of dollars and weekly bingo games, mostly run without permits. The Chief of Police stated that “nobody should be doing a raffle or a bingo without a permit”, but said police would not arrest people and would instead run a legal awareness campaign with other agencies, because strict enforcement would mean charging almost everyone. He also said police wanted to update the Regulations to bring more activity within the law, and that a draft was with government lawyers before submission to Cabinet. Whether new regulations were subsequently made could not be verified: the PacLII consolidation still shows the 2005 Regulations, and no replacement instrument was found.

A casino would require a separate legal basis. The 2005 Regulations do not provide one, and the government’s own statements in 2010 acknowledged that new legislation might be needed before a casino could be properly regulated (InterGame, 2010).

Online gambling

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Niue has no law that licenses online gambling and no operator authorised to offer online casino games, sports betting or lotteries from or into Niue. The 2005 Regulations address gambling permitted “on any premises” occupied or controlled by an eligible body; they do not contemplate remote gambling, meaning gambling conducted over the internet or by telephone.

No Niuean statute was identified that expressly prohibits offshore operators from accepting players in Niue, and no mechanism was found for blocking gambling websites, restricting payments to gambling operators or regulating gambling advertising. Given the island’s very small financial sector, there are practical limits on payment flows in any case. The APG reports that Niue has no central bank and that there are only two providers of financial services, the Niue Development Bank and the agent of an international money or value transfer company, with retail banking provided through an agency of a New Zealand bank since the island’s only retail bank closed in 2013 (APG, 2025).

Niue’s country-code internet domain, .nu, is used by websites of many kinds, but it has no connection with gambling authorisation: a website using a .nu address is not licensed or regulated by Niue.

Readers should also distinguish Niue from New Zealand. New Zealand’s Online Casino Gambling Bill passed its third reading on 23 April 2026; according to law firm Russell McVeagh, it provides for up to 15 licences allocated by auction through the Department of Internal Affairs, with the Act entering into force on 1 May 2026 and online casino operators, including offshore operators, prohibited from 1 December 2026 unless licensed; operators that have applied for a licence may continue while their application is pending, until 1 July 2027 at the latest. That regime applies to New Zealand only and does not license or restrict gambling in Niue.

Position of players

The 2005 Regulations are directed at persons who permit gambling on premises without a permit. They do not create an offence of participating in a game as a player, and the legislation reviewed for this guide contains no provision that makes it an offence for a person in Niue to gamble with an offshore online operator. Because the full text of section 176 of the Niue Act 1966 could not be reviewed, it cannot be stated definitively whether a person found in a gaming house might commit an offence under that provision; such provisions are aimed at physical premises rather than internet services.

No reported prosecution of a player for online gambling in Niue was found. The 2022 police statements quoted above concern unpermitted raffles and bingo, and indicated an awareness-raising approach rather than prosecution. It should be emphasised that the absence of a specific prohibition does not mean that offshore online gambling is authorised or protected: players using foreign websites have no recourse to a Niuean regulator, and disputes would depend on the law of the operator’s licensing jurisdiction, if any.

Taxation

Niue has no gambling-specific tax. Two general taxes are relevant.

Niue Consumption Tax (NCT). The Niue Consumption Tax Act 2009, which applies to supplies made on or after 1 April 2009, imposes NCT at 12.5% on taxable supplies. Section 17 contains specific rules for gambling supplies, defined to include the supply of a ticket in “a lottery, raffle, or similar undertaking” and the acceptance of a bet on the outcome of a gambling event. For a taxable person, NCT on gambling supplies is calculated on a global basis that takes account of the monetary prizes paid out in the period, and no input tax credits are allowed for acquiring a gambling supply. Whether small community raffles fall within the tax in practice depends on whether the organiser is a taxable person under the Act.
Income tax. The Income Tax Act 1961 defines assessable income broadly and includes, in section 51(g), “income derived from any other source whatsoever”. The parts of the Act reviewed do not refer specifically to gambling winnings, prizes or betting, and no ruling or guidance on the treatment of players’ winnings was found.

The 2022 BCN report recorded that the Tax Department relies on individuals to declare additional income voluntarily and had not seen bingo or raffle earnings in personal returns. People who regularly organise raffles or games for personal gain, as distinct from eligible community bodies, should therefore seek advice from the Niue Treasury on their obligations.

Anti-money laundering

Niue’s anti-money-laundering framework rests on the Financial Transactions and Reporting Act 2006 (as the APG names it), which established the Niue Financial Intelligence Unit, together with the Proceeds of Crime Act 1998 and the Terrorism Suppression and Transnational Crimes Act 2006. Niue is a member of the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG), the regional FATF-style body. Its most recent mutual evaluation report was based on an on-site visit from 25 November to 5 December 2024, adopted at the APG annual meeting in August 2025 and published in October 2025 (Government of Niue; APG list of mutual evaluation reports).

The report describes Niue’s financial and non-financial business sectors as “extremely small”. It states that “there are no casinos, dealers in precious metals and stones, investment advisors, or real estate agents”, and that the only designated non-financial business or profession operating is a single lawyer. Casinos are therefore not a supervised sector in practice. The report also found that the Financial Intelligence Unit had been non-operational from 2020 to 2024, during the COVID-19 pandemic, and recommenced operations in September 2024, and that most deficiencies identified in Niue’s previous evaluation in 2012 persisted. Among its priority recommendations were dissemination of Niue’s 2024 national risk assessment and adoption of a national AML/CFT policy. Should Niue ever authorise a casino or online gambling, the operator would need to be brought within the reporting regime.

Consumer protection and responsible gambling

Niue has no statutory self-exclusion scheme, no national responsible gambling code and no dedicated problem gambling service was identified. The consumer safeguards in Niuean law are indirect: the low monetary limits on permitted games, the restriction of gambling to non-commercial community bodies, and the Chief of Police’s power to attach conditions to permits or decline applications under the 2005 Regulations.

Niueans are New Zealand citizens. People in New Zealand can contact the Gambling Helpline Aotearoa, a free 24-hour service operated by Whakarongorau Aotearoa, on 0800 654 655 or by texting 8006; the service includes a Pasifika Gambling Helpline. Residents of Niue who are concerned about their own or a family member’s gambling may also seek help through local health services. General guidance is available in our responsible gambling guide.

Recent and upcoming developments

APG mutual evaluation (2025). The APG adopted Niue’s mutual evaluation report in August 2025 and published it in October 2025. It confirmed that there are no casinos in Niue and called for wide-ranging improvements to the AML/CFT system.
Review of the gaming permit rules (from 2022). In September 2022 the police said draft replacement regulations for raffles and bingo were with government lawyers before going to Cabinet. As of October 2026, no replacement regulations could be found on PacLII, and the status of the draft could not be verified.
New Zealand online casino licensing (2026). New Zealand’s Online Casino Gambling Bill passed its third reading in April 2026, with licence applications due by 1 December 2026. The regime does not extend to Niue under Article 36 of the Niue Constitution.
Casino proposals. No casino proposal has been reported since the 2009 to 2010 discussions, and no casino legislation was identified.

Casino listings for players in Niue

The listings below are generated automatically from our casino database. They do not show that any operator is licensed in Niue: Niue does not license online casinos, and the only lawful gambling it authorises is small-scale, permit-based community gaming approved by the Chief of Police under the Gaming (Fees) Regulations 2005. The listings must not be read as an indication that online casino play is authorised or regulated in Niue.

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Key points

Top Rated Online Casinos for Niue

Historical development

Legal framework

Constitutional position and the relationship with New Zealand

The Niue Act 1966

The Gaming (Fees) Regulations 2005

Regulator and licensing model

Online gambling

Position of players

Taxation

Anti-money laundering

Consumer protection and responsible gambling

Recent and upcoming developments

Casino listings for players in Niue

Related country guides

Sources and further reading

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