Official language: English
Population: 4,291,900
Currency: New Zealand Dollar (NZD)

Current Exchange Rate
1 EUR = 2.0098 NZD
1 GBP = 2.1468 NZD
1 USD = 1.3576 NZD

Poker in New Zealand
Poker is big in New Zealand. The country has seven large casinos, all of which offer a variety of poker games. There are also a few dedicated poker halls in some of the larger cities. Plus, there are several major poker tours and similar events in New Zealand each year, so serious players have plenty of opportunities to earn some big money playing poker in New Zealand.

A League PokerStars Tour will be launching in early 2009 with events across New Zealand and Australia. Another major poker event is the annual New Zealand Poker Champs No Limit Hold ‘Em tournament which offers $100,000 for the first place winner. In addition to tournaments, New Zealand has some excellent players too. One of the best is Lee Nelson who won the Crown Australian Poker Championship in 2006. Nelson has taken home more than $2 million in live poker tournament wins.

Online Poker in New Zealand
Online poker in New Zealand is also very popular these days. Unfortunately, there are no legal online poker sites run by New Zealand companies. The government has given licenses to the national lottery and sports betting companies to operate online, but has not allowed any New Zealand casinos or poker rooms to offer internet poker games.

Luckily, New Zealanders still have plenty of options when it comes to online poker games. The government does nothing to prevent players from using foreign gambling sites, so poker players in New Zealand have access to many fine online poker sites. There are hundreds of online gambling sites in English these accept players from New Zealand. This provides plenty of options for Kiwi players looking to play online poker.