Illegal gambling on the rise, DIA says, after laying charges

Illegal gambling is on the rise – with 76 complaints being investigated over the past year.

The revelation by the Department of Internal Affairs comes as a Canterbury man is charged over running what was understood to be the country’s biggest illegal lottery.

Waiariki McIlroy-Jones and his company now stood accused of multiple gambling crimes, allegedly generating more than $11 million.

Department of Internal Affairs investigations manager Marty Greentree said the scale of the alleged illegal gambling operation "has not been seen before".

"Eleven million dollars is a lot of money – there’s a lot of moving parts with this so it does take time using complex investigation techniques such as forensic accounting and digital forensics."

McIlroy has been on the radar for a while – police swooped in July last year, putting a hlt on the business, and freezing multiple assets.

"They’ve taken the cars, the houses, the bikes, boats, whatever they want to take ... they freezed the bank accounts," McIlroy said in an Instagram post at the time.

Under the law, gambling prizes over $5000 could only be offered by not-for-profit organisations licensed by the Department of Internal Affairs.

If convicted, punishment was up to a year in prison or a fine of up to $50,000.

The Canterbury case might be the biggest internal affairs has dealt with but it was far from isolated.

Consumer NZ communications and campaigns manager Jessica Walker told 1News the best way to check the legitimacy of a lottery was to search it on the companies register.

"Having said that, we know, how realistic is that? Are you going to do a Google search for the companies register? Possibly not — but I do think that is one thing you can do to protect yourself.”

Greentree saidthe Department of Internal Affairs has seen an increase in cases of suspected illegal gambling in the last two years.

"They are on the rise and we take a risk-based approach on what we choose to investigate.”

McIlroy-Jones is still on social media, but understodd to be no longer operating. His case would be back in court next month.