Did you Know?
~$2.79b
NZD lost to gambling across New Zealand from 2023 - 2024
~381,000
Adults reported secondary harm from gambling in 2023.
2.76m
About 2.76 million New Zealanders gambled in 2023
Overview
Safer, Smarter Gaming
Empower your gaming venue with ultra‑fast, accurate, and ethical facial recognition—built for NZ’s unique regulatory and cultural landscape.
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Ensure Compliance: Automatically identify self-excluded gamblers to meet Gambling Act requirements and avoid venue fines of up to NZD 5,000.
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Enhance Customer Safety: Create a safer environment by instantly alerting staff when a self-excluded or excluded patron enters the venue.
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Improve Efficiency: Reduce manual exclusion checks so your staff can focus on delivering great customer experiences.
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Protect Privacy: Protect patron privacy by ensuring images of regular customers are not stored—striking the right balance between efficiency and trust.
Challenges for Gaming Venues
Regulatory Compliance
Under New Zealand’s Gambling Act 2003, venues are legally required to enforce self-exclusion and multi-venue exclusion (MVE) orders. Failure to uphold these responsibilities can result in fines of up to NZD 5,000 for the venue. Ensuring excluded individuals are not able to gamble is therefore a top priority. NEC’s NeoFace Watch supports compliance by accurately identifying excluded patrons in real-time, helping you meet regulatory obligations while protecting your licence to operate.
Enhancing Customer Experience
New Zealand communities place strong emphasis on harm minimisation and social responsibility in gaming. For venues, this means striking the right balance—providing entertainment while safeguarding at-risk individuals. NeoFace Watch helps you create a safer, more welcoming environment by discreetly identifying self-excluded patrons, without disrupting the experience for regular customers.
Operational Efficiency
Manual checks of exclusion lists are labour-intensive and prone to human error. For busy venues, this can create unnecessary strain on staff and leave room for oversight. NeoFace Watch automates exclusion monitoring, reducing administrative burden and allowing staff to focus on providing exceptional service—while maintaining a seamless entry process for all patrons.
How NeoFace Watch Works in New Zealand
Real-Time Monitoring
NEC’s world-leading facial recognition technology continuously scans entry points and gaming areas, detecting self-excluded or multi-venue excluded patrons within seconds. This helps venues meet their obligations under the Gambling Act 2003 while supporting harm-minimisation goals.
Automated Alerts
When a self-excluded individual or excluded patron is identified, NeoFace Watch instantly notifies venue staff or security teams. This enables quick, discreet action to prevent gambling harm and keep the venue compliant—without causing disruption to other customers.
Seamless Integration
NeoFace Watch works with your existing surveillance and access systems, making it simple to deploy across one or multiple sites. Scalable and adaptable, it supports venues of all sizes—whether a single community club or a nationwide chain of gaming venues—while maintaining alignment with New Zealand’s privacy and regulatory expectations.
Dependable Solutions
Proven Performance
With over 1,000 deployments across 70 countries, NEC’s biometric technology is trusted by law enforcement, border agencies, and entertainment venues worldwide. Independently ranked by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) as the world’s most accurate facial recognition, NeoFace delivers the reliability New Zealand venues need to meet compliance and community expectations.
Scalable and Flexible
Every gaming venue is different. NeoFace Watch is designed to adapt to your operations, integrating with existing systems such as loyalty programs, payment platforms, and security infrastructure. Whether managing a single site or scaling across multiple venues nationwide, our solution grows with your needs.
Cutting-Edge Technology for Privacy and Security
Protecting customer data is as important as protecting your venue. NEC’s solutions apply the highest standards of encryption and data privacy, ensuring compliance with the New Zealand Privacy Act 2020, as well as international frameworks like the GDPR. By prioritising transparency and trust, NeoFace Watch helps you maintain the confidence of your patrons and regulators alike.
