Source: Radio New Zealand
Mahjong venues told RNZ that they are entertainment venues and that they are not breaking any laws. AFP / Hauke-Christian Dittrich / dpa Picture-Alliance
Two mothers say their teenagers were part of a group of four who went missing for a week, and spent nights gambling at mahjong venues in Auckland.
The popular Chinese game, which involves four players and 144 tiles, can involve gambling.
The mothers say mahjong venues fall outside existing gambling regulations and changes are needed to protect young people – such as banning people under the age of 18 from entering.
The Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) said whether a mahjong venue required a gambling license depended on how the activity was run, and the amount of money involved – however it said all gambling was prohibited to those under the age of 18.
Mahjong venues told RNZ they are entertainment venues and that they are not breaking any laws.
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RNZ visited five mahjong venues across Auckland. Some feature private rooms with automatic mahjong tables, and provide snacks, instant noodles and soft drinks for customers who can play into the early hours of the morning.
For between $40 and $80, customers can have unlimited game-time.
One mother, whose daughter was 14 when she started to frequent mahjong halls last year, said she found out what her teenager had been up to when she came home at about 3am and told her she’d won $40.
The mother, who RNZ has agreed not to name, said the habit has taken a toll on her child – including affecting her attendance at school, which had fallen to 40 percent at one point.
“This is pretty addictive, during that time she would be going there almost every day, she would play until very late at night and can’t get up to go to school the next day. This thing has numbed her energy and spirit,” she said.
The mother said her daughter went missing for seven days early last year, hopping between mahjong venues with three friends.
She reported her missing daughter to the police and also went looking for her teenager every night.
“I would go wait outside the mahjong houses around seven or eight in the evening, I’ll wait for half-an-hour at one place, if they don’t turn up, I’ll go to the next place and wait for another half-an-hour to an hour,” she said.
“When I recall this, it’s all tears, I was very worried at the time. I was feeling like I was about to have a heart attack,” she added.
The police confirmed they searched for the missing teenager in March last year, and made enquiries at five mahjong venues.
The mother said her daughter was receiving counselling, and now played less than before. She said her teenager still visited mahjong halls on weekends, occasionally playing for money, and usually returned home before 11pm.
The mother said she felt hopeless and continued to worry about the risks of her daughter developing a gambling habit as an adult.
One teenager came home at 3am and said she’d won $40, her mother said. RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King
She is concerned New Zealand authorities don’t understand what they’re grappling with.
“Mahjong hasn’t been in New Zealand for that long, [the venues] are more targeted towards Asians, maybe New Zealand doesn’t have too much experience dealing with this problem, or they don’t understand Mahjong.
“For instance, in China, under 18s are not allowed to enter mahjong places, so I strongly advocate for New Zealand to consider laws in this area, to clarify whether these places require licenses, and secondly, even if you have a licence, whether under 18s can enter,” she said.
The mother said even if mahjong isn’t classified officially as gambling, she still doesn’t think those under 18 should be allowed in.
“Mahjong, perhaps we understand more about this as Chinese, the gambling aspect is part of the game itself and its purpose,” she said.
The mother said this is a wider issue affecting youths, and she’s heard about other students at her daughter’s school playing mahjong and playing poker, and that in some cases big money would be involved.
The DIA’s director of gambling Vicki Scott said the department is aware of illegal mahjong gambling in Auckland.
“Several venues visited by the Department last year targeting illegal poker had mahjong tables set up. These were seized as evidence of illegal gambling. So far, charges have been filed against one individual and four companies for operating illegal poker, and other investigations are still ongoing,” she said in a statement.
However, Scott said they were re not aware of anyone under 18 playing mahjong at these particular locations.
Scott said there were no licensed mahjong operators in New Zealand, with the exception of casinos.
RNZ spoke to another mother who said her 16-year-old son was another of the teens who went missing for a week playing mahjong last year.
She said he’d sneak out of the house at night to go to the mahjong halls, and she had since been told by a friend of her son that her teenager lost about $1000 playing poker.
“That time he would be very tired during the day, and get very excited at night, but when I drive him to school in the morning, he would just fall asleep in the car,” she said.
RNZ has seen a photo of the boy asleep at a mahjong table.
The mother said the mahjong businesses were taking advantage of the regulatory loopholes.
“They see themselves as entertainment places, and they don’t care whether there is gambling happening inside, it’s like they’re trying to free themselves of any responsibility,” she said.
“When I asked them, can underaged people come in, they said: ‘They look like they’re already quite big’, but I think they’re just finding an excuse for themselves,” she added.
The mother said she sees mahjong as a form of gambling, and wants New Zealand to ban under 18s from entering Mahjong venues.
“In my view, they shouldn’t [exist]. If their existence is reasonable, they should be like casinos, where there is a rule stopping underaged kids from entering, and they need to have security,” she said.
RNZ approached four mahjong venues that the mothers said their teenagers visited last year and asked how they see the nature of their business, whether they’d allowed people under 18 inside, and whether teens had engaged in mahjong gambling at their venues.
RNZ has agreed not to name the mahjong venues, at the request of the two mothers.
Three of the businesses described themselves as entertainment venues.
None of those businesses said they check identification for ages, but one said following RNZ’s query about underage gambling, they would tighten checks in the future.
One of the businesses said they would be happy to comply with any DIA rules requiring them to check for age, but they were not aware of any.
“If they ask us to check, we will definitely check, but they haven’t forced us to check, we don’t have the right to check,” said a manager at a Mahjong venue.
When asked whether money was involved in the mahjong games, one business said they don’t allow cash to appear on the mahjong table, but have no control over whether customers are doing transactions outside of the venue. Another said they don’t allow gambling, and a third said whether money is changing hands between customers is none of their business.
One mahjong venue co-owner, whose business declined to respond, commented in his personal capacity: “Whether or not you are playing money in mahjong, mahjong doesn’t have anything to do with gambling. To us Chinese people, it is an entertainment, it represents pursuit of and passion for a happy life, it is an indispensable part of Chinese culture”.
An organisation providing counselling and assistance for problem gambling, Asian Family Services, has been assisting the affected mothers and their teens.
Its CEO Kelly Feng said she’d like to see the DIA review the grey area of mahjong operations to provide more protection for young people.
“If they claim [it is] purely entertainment, they have to make sure there’s no cash involved when they play. And if there is money involved, according to current regulation – depends on amount – they need to get their license and they need to comply with all those regulations as well,” she said.
Feng supports the banning of people under 18 from entering mahjong halls in New Zealand as she believed the exposure could be normalising gambling for young people.
“We’re seeing the trend of a lot of young people, not only [playing] mahjong, there’s tonnes of gamification and normalising of gambling online as well. Research says it increases the risk of adulthood gambling,” said Feng.
According to the DIA, gambling is classified by the value of prizes, and whether anyone running the gambling is making a profit.
Class 1 gambling covers activity where prizes total $500 or less, Class 2 covers prizes between $500 and $5000 – anything above $5000 in prizes is classed as Class 3 and requires a gambling license, and only not-for-profit societies can hold these licenses.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand