Press Release – RNZ
The Department of Internal Affairs says illegal gambling dens have been using predatory loans to ensnare vulnerable people.
In some cases, people were forced to give up their cars and homes, while others had to to sell drugs for the organisers.
It comes after the DIA launched several raids on poker dens across Auckland, seizing poker tables, chips, cash and cryptocurrency.
The venues in Albany, Botany, Epsom, Newmarket and Auckland’s city centre were believed to have offered unlicensed poker games in breach of the 2003 Gambling Act.
The DIA’s gambling director Vicki Scott told Morning Report some of the venues appeared to have links with Chinese criminal groups.
“There are some links,…