Crazy nanny state in NZ

Newsroom reports:

Polymarket, Kalshi and similar prediction markets are illegal under New Zealand’s gambling laws, the nation’s gambling regulator has decided.

Polymarket and Kalshi are online markets where users can place bets on future outcomes, ranging from New Zealand provincial cricket results to what phrases Donald Trump will use next month.

This is bad enough, but even worse Kalshi has now geoblocked NZers from even viewing their sites.

This means NZers can’t even view the markets on those sites. I write a monthly newsletter on election outcomes in Australia, Canada, NZ, UK and the US. Part of my analysis is reporting on what the prediction markets are for upcoming elections.

So stupid nanny state means I can’t even perform basic journalism without a VPN. Is this New Zealand or China?

And why the hell does a so called centre right government with an ACT Internal Affairs Minister think it must make it illegal for people to bet on prediction markets?

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