The rest of the restrictions are just as pointed. Ads can't run within 30 minutes of a live broadcast, can't use cartoons, mascots or youth-culture music that might appeal to under-18s, and can't target audiences where minors could plausibly make up more than a fifth of viewers. None of it slows down the licensing timeline: applicants are still working toward a 2027 launch, and any operator that doesn't secure one of the 15 licences has to stop serving New Zealand entirely once the transition period ends. For players trying to work out which offshore sites are worth their card details right now, that distinction between a legitimate operator and a scam dressed up to look like one is the whole game. It's also why a resource such as Casinos.com's list of vetted online casino sites in New Zealand has become more useful this year rather than less, according to Casinos.com, an independent reviewer of casino operators serving New Zealand players: one consumer-technology analyst tracking the rollout noted that "the operators worth using are the ones that were already transparent about ownership and payouts long before any regulator asked them to be."