Media Release
30 June 2025
Forced closure of greyhound racing could cost taxpayers $40m
Greyhound Racing New Zealand (GRNZ) has estimated that the Government’s decision to close greyhound racing could cost the taxpayer at least an additional $40m, primarily due to the cost of looking after greyhounds for up to three years while they wait to be rehomed.
When the decision was made, the Government’s misguided belief was that the greyhound population would be rehomed by 31 July 2026 when racing would finish.
Latest projections provided by GRNZ to the Government is that 1,500 greyhounds will still need to be rehomed following the closure of racing.
GRNZ’s sophisticated rehoming programme has been able to maximise demand and successfully rehome greyhounds as pets at about 650 a year. Given current demand it will take two to three years to rehome all 1,500 greyhounds after the sport’s closure.
Current rehoming costs are met by GRNZ, funded by revenue from racing. Last year it spent $8.3m to rehome 673 greyhounds. There will be no racing after July 2026, so rehoming costs post-closure will have to be funded from alternative sources.
The $40m+ includes housing and veterinary costs for the greyhounds while they wait to get into the GRNZ rehoming programme, the costs of preparation and pet training, and the costs of finding homes and adopting them into these homes. This estimate is based on analysis of GRNZ’s current rehoming costs.
Additional costs to the taxpayer include the Ministerial Advisory Committee and Government officials. Also not included in the calculations is compensation for the assets and losses incurred on closure by racing participants.
Greyhound Racing New Zealand CEO Edward Rennell said:
“Greyhound racing treats its dogs better than most other working animals, while thousands of pets are neglected through the community.
“This additional $40m cost further highlights the Government’s cavalier approach and flawed decision making. Taxpayers are set to lose the industry’s $159m contribution to the economy and could now face an additional unbudgeted cost of $40m to close a sport that doesn't need to close.
“Taking shortcuts is not an option. GRNZ will continue to stand up for the sake of our participants and the greyhounds in having this flawed decision over-turned and common sense applied.”
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For further information contact:
Liam Constable – 029 200 9842
About GRNZ
Greyhound Racing New Zealand is the governing body for greyhound racing in New Zealand and provides governance, support and assistance to the affiliated clubs in the sport of greyhound racing.
The decision to end greyhound racing has significant economic and social consequences. The sport provides 1,054 full-time equivalent jobs and contributed $159.2 million to the economy in FY23.
The Government announced on 10 December 2024, an intention to legislate to ban greyhound racing in New Zealand from 31 July 2026.
Greyhound Racing New Zealand has applied, through its Counsel to the High Court, for a Judicial Review of the Government’s decision to ban greyhound racing.
Visit www.grnz.co.nz, lovegreyhounds for more information.
Media Release
23 June 2025
New analysis details Government annual gift of $119m to multinational gambling company
Greyhound Racing New Zealand has released new analysis detailing the extent to which the Government is financially supporting a multinational gambling giant.
It comes as the Government is expected this week to pass the Racing Industry Amendment Bill into law, creating a digital monopoly on gambling for Entain.
The analysis, prepared by an independent consultant, details the financial help required for Entain to meet its funding guarantee of $150m per year to the racing industry.
The funding guarantee, combined with a guarantee to retain approximately 450 TAB staff until June 2025, were set under the terms of the agreement when the TAB’s betting business was outsourced to Entain in 2023.
The analysis estimates in dollar terms the value of the Government’s support to bail out Entain so it can limit its losses in meeting the terms of its deal until 2029.
The passage of legislation to block New Zealanders from gambling offshore will boost Entain annual revenues by at least $75m per year.
The retention of gambling on Australian greyhounds after the ban comes into effect, will preserve Entain gross betting revenues of approximately $44m per year.
Without these actions by the Government, Entain would be faced with an estimated revenue deficit of $26m per year.
Greyhound Racing New Zealand CEO Edward Rennell said:
“The Government has chosen to bail out a multinational gambling company at the expense of ordinary Kiwis.
“It will shamelessly pass laws and create digital monopolies so Entain can meet its funding guarantees and obligations to private shareholders.
“Entain won’t need to compete to win new revenue as it was brought in to do. It will be gifted it by banning Kiwis from using non-Entain betting providers and retaining gambling on Australian greyhound racing.
“The decision to keep taking money from Australian greyhound races, but strip thousands of regional Kiwis of their livelihoods and passion, is depressingly cynical and hypocritical.
“Gross income of $44 million dollars each year will now be sliced up between the Government, Entain and the equine codes and not go to the thousands of trainers, owners, and breeders involved in greyhound racing.
“It’s a reverse Robin Hood. The Government is taking money from the provinces to save face on a bad deal and keep the money flowing into Entain, thoroughbred and harness racing.”
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For further information contact:
Liam Constable – 029 200 9842
EDITORS NOTES
Timeline of Entain – TAB deal:
March 2023: TAB and Entain agreed to enter a strategic partnership agreement where TAB has delegated its betting and wagering functions to Entain.
May 2023: The partnership was approved by then Racing Minister Labour’s Kieran McAnulty, outsourcing TAB’s monopoly betting operation to Entain for 25 years, a UK-listed multinational. 50% revenue share between Entain and the TAB.
May 2023: TAB sought a variation to its authorisation of its arrangements with Tabcorp to reflect strategic partnership with Entain.
June 2023: The partnership officially started on June 1, 2023.
Entain Guarantees under the terms of sale:
Entain provided TAB $150 million upfront a with a guaranteed $150 million for the first five years.
$10 million sponsorship for racing carnivals.
On passage of the Racing Amendment bill into law: $100 million payment from Entain, $80 million to be shared between thoroughbred and harness racing
Entain committed to no forced redundancies for first 24 months of the agreement, due to expire this month (June 2025).
Book value of Entain’s TAB licence assets, if the Racing Amendment legislation goes through:
According to Entain’s March 2025 annual report, the estimated value of the New Zealand TAB licence assets was $2.7 billion NZD, including the potential introduction of the legislation.
About GRNZ
Greyhound Racing New Zealand is the governing body for greyhound racing in New Zealand and provides governance, support and assistance to the affiliated clubs in the sport of greyhound racing.
The decision to end greyhound racing has significant economic and social consequences. The sport provides 1,054 full-time equivalent jobs and contributed $159.2 million to the economy in FY23.
The Government announced on 10 December 2024, an intention to legislate to ban greyhound racing in New Zealand from 31 July 2026.
Visit www.grnz.co.nz for more information.
Media Release
16 June 2025
Government requisition plans for Greyhound money revealed
Greyhound Racing New Zealand said today that the Government will enter unprecedented territory
if it requisitions the organisation’s savings fund (currently $16m), built up over decades, as part of its
intended ban of the sport.
GRNZ is an Incorporated Society, with funds held on behalf of participants in the sport.
Governments can only forcibly close and appropriate funds of an Incorporated Society for financial
misconduct, insolvency or failure to submit returns.
GRNZ has operated impeccably and complied with all requests made of it. Therefore, the
Government will need to pass a remarkable new law to close a Society that has done nothing illegal.
The Government would need to declare what happens to the Society’s funds. It has been
suspiciously silent on the matter to date.
GRNZ CEO Edward Rennell said a grab for money rightly owned by the sport and its participants
would be contemptible.
“The Government will execute the sport on trumped up charges, and make us pay for the gallows
and grave,” Rennell said.
“It is a real low point; the first Government to fabricate a new law to close an Incorporated Society
that is totally compliant with all laws and standards. It’s a cavalier approach to law, justice and
democracy.
“The Government is grinding its heel into our people by taking their money as well as their sport.
“Those funds were built up over decades by generations of sport participants. It belongs to them,”
Edward Rennell said.
Rennell predicts the Government would excuse the extraordinary theft as necessary to pay for
rehoming greyhounds, but he says that the high cost arises from the Government’s ban, and
insistence on a close-down faster than greyhounds can be rehomed, requiring long-term kenneling
while they wait.
Rennell said the ban was unjustified, so at least should be carried out with impeccable fairness. Any
ban must be cost-neutral, where the sport is wound down gradually, using profits and savings to
cover costs and compensate participants for loss of assets.
/ends
For further information contact:
Liam Constable – 029 200 9842
Media Release
26 May 2025
Greyhounds starts judicial review proceedings
Greyhound Racing New Zealand (GRNZ) has today applied, through its Counsel to the High Court, for a Judicial Review of the Government’s decision to ban greyhound racing from 31 July 2026.
The statement of claim made to the Court says the decision broke fundamental rules of law, being inadequately informed, prepared and consulted on. There were only a few short steps from the Minister for Racing seeking a report in June 2024 on banning the sport, to the Cabinet deciding to do so in December 2024.
The Cabinet paper produced by the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) focused on animal welfare but was selective in its use of reports from the Racing Integrity Board (RIB) and included no information from the National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee (NAWAC). For example, an RIB November 2024 report stated that GRNZ met welfare standards, often better than other animal sports or greyhound racing worldwide, but this information was left out of the DIA report and Cabinet paper.
GRNZ’s application says there was a duty, promise and expectation to consult with GRNZ on the decision which never happened, despite a history of constructive engagement on animal welfare.
GRNZ CEO Edward Rennell said “the organisation had decided on a judicial review to expose the Government’s cavalier attitude to policymaking adversely impacting the livelihoods of thousands.
“This was a Cabinet paper from public officials who had made up their minds, for a Prime Minister who had made up his mind and stated it publicly.
“The Government took its decision too lightly and too quickly, without due care and due diligence. It was a rushed and inadequate Cabinet paper.
“This is an injustice to greyhound breeders, owners, trainers and all other industry participants, as well as a dereliction of duty to New Zealanders.
“Decisions that impact the lives and livelihoods of people must be extremely well articulated and evidenced.
This decision was not, highlighting an emerging pattern of short-cutting in policymaking. New Zealand deserves better.” Edward Rennell said.
Case explainer
The GRNZ statement of claim under the Judicial Review Procedure Act 2016:
• The essence of the GRNZ case is that the way the Cabinet decision to ban Greyhound racing was reached and the decision itself broke many fundamental rules of administrative law.
• It is rare to challenge a Cabinet decision, but the decision-making process was so inadequate and erroneous that it warrants judicial intervention.
• It clarifies that the Cabinet decision was a ‘reviewable decision’ under the Judicial Review Procedure Act 2016.
• The first cause of action was the failure to consult.
GRNZ says consultation is a legal duty that arose from being promised to Greyhound Racing, and because of the hugely significant implications to the detriment of many
hundreds of hardworking New Zealanders. The Department of Internal Affairs officials said no decision would be made without Greyhound Racing being consulted – but it did not
happen.
• The second cause of action is legitimate expectation.
A legitimate expectation about a certain process can be established by what has been said or done by a decision maker. GRNZ says DIA’s course of conduct since 2021 created a
legitimate expectation that the industry would be able to make submissions on any proposed ban.
• The third point is that the process broke all the rules about procedural fairness.
Decisionmakers must act reasonably to ensure the process undertaken is fair and not a foregone conclusion. That has not happened here.
• The fourth and fifth causes of action deal with the failure to make relevant considerations.
Either the Minister was unaware of the development of the Cabinet paper and the background circumstances, or the Minister knew exactly what was going on and was
instrumental in its sign-off and presentation.
The fourth cause of action says that if the Minister was unaware, then the officials failed by not bringing to the Minister’s attention certain key relevant considerations
The fifth cause of action proceeds on the basis that the Minister did know what was going on.
• Interim Relief.
GRNZ is applying for ‘interim relief’ – a Court order to stop the Crown working on the ban (via the Ministerial Advisory Committee) while the judicial review is undertaken. No further
steps to give effect to the ban should be taken unless and until the Court has had an opportunity of scrutinising the claim.
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About GRNZ
Greyhound Racing New Zealand is the governing body for greyhound racing in New Zealand and provides governance, support and assistance to the affiliated clubs in the sport of greyhound racing.
The decision to end greyhound racing has significant economic and social consequences. The sport provides 1,054 full-time equivalent jobs and contributed $159.2 million to the economy in FY23.
The Government announced on 10 December 2024, an intention to legislate to ban greyhound racing in New Zealand from 31 July 2026.