About This Privacy Policy
West Casino operates the website westcasino-nz.com and provides online gambling services to players in New Zealand and other permitted jurisdictions. Our registered contact address is Level 3, 2 Cathedral Square, Christchurch 8011, New Zealand. You can reach us by email at support@westcasino-nz.com or by phone on +64 3 386 0361.
This Privacy Policy sets out how West Casino collects, holds, uses, and discloses personal information. It applies to every person who visits westcasino-nz.com, registers an account, or uses any of our services, including players based in New Zealand.
Our practices are shaped by the New Zealand Privacy Act 2020, which replaced the Privacy Act 1993 and introduced stronger obligations for organisations that handle personal information. We also comply with the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009 (AML/CFT Act) and the Gambling Act 2003 where those statutes affect how we process data. If you have questions about anything covered here, contact us directly before using our services.
Information We Collect
Information You Give Us Directly
When you register an account or interact with our platform, we collect information you provide to us. This includes:
- Full legal name, date of birth, and gender
- Residential address in New Zealand or elsewhere
- Email address and phone number
- Username and password (stored in encrypted form)
- Payment details, including card numbers (partial), bank account references, or cryptocurrency wallet addresses
- Identity verification documents such as a New Zealand driver licence, passport, or other government-issued photo ID
- Proof of address documents such as a bank statement or utility bill
- Source of funds declarations where required under the AML/CFT Act
- Responsible gambling preferences and self-exclusion requests
- Any correspondence you send us through live chat, email, or our contact form
Information We Collect Automatically
When you use our website or mobile platform, our systems record certain technical information automatically. This includes:
- IP address and approximate geographic location derived from it
- Browser type, version, and operating system
- Device type and identifiers
- Pages visited, time spent on each page, and navigation path through the site
- Game sessions, including games played, bet amounts, wins, and losses
- Deposit and withdrawal history
- Login timestamps and session durations
- Referring website or link that brought you to westcasino-nz.com
- Cookies and similar tracking technologies (see our separate Cookie Policy for full details)
Information from Third Parties
We may receive personal information about you from outside sources in specific circumstances. These include identity verification agencies we use to confirm your identity, fraud prevention and AML screening databases, payment processors who handle your deposit and withdrawal transactions, and game software providers who report game activity from your account. We only request and retain third-party information to the extent it is necessary for a specific, legitimate purpose.
Why We Collect and Use Your Personal Information
Under Information Privacy Principle 1 of the Privacy Act 2020, we are required to collect personal information only for a lawful purpose connected with our functions and activities. The following describes the purposes for which we use the information we hold:
Account Registration and Identity Verification
We need your name, date of birth, address, and identity documents to create your account and confirm your identity. Under the Gambling Act 2003, we are required to take reasonable steps to ensure players are at least 18 years of age. Identity verification also fulfils our obligations under the AML/CFT Act, which requires us to carry out customer due diligence before allowing you to deposit or withdraw funds above certain thresholds.
Delivering and Improving Our Services
We use account and session data to operate the games, process bets, credit winnings, handle deposits and withdrawals in NZD and other currencies, and maintain your account settings. Without this information, we cannot provide the service you have signed up for. We also analyse aggregate, non-identifiable data to understand how players use the platform so we can improve navigation, game selection, and overall performance.
Anti-Money Laundering and Fraud Prevention
The AML/CFT Act 2009 places direct obligations on gambling operators. We are required to monitor transactions for suspicious activity, verify the source of funds for certain players, and report suspicious transactions to the New Zealand Police Financial Intelligence Unit where required by law. Fraud detection systems also monitor login behaviour, device fingerprints, and transaction patterns to identify potentially fraudulent account activity.
Responsible Gambling
We collect and use information about your gambling behaviour to support responsible gambling measures. This includes monitoring deposit frequency, session lengths, and patterns that may indicate problem gambling. Under the Gambling Act 2003, gambling operators are expected to take steps to minimise harm. The responsible gambling tools on our platform, including deposit limits, session timers, reality checks, and self-exclusion, depend on us holding and acting on information about how you use the site.
Customer Support
When you contact us through live chat, email, or phone, we record the content of those interactions so that support agents have the context to assist you properly. We retain support records to allow follow-up on unresolved matters and to identify recurring issues that need attention.
Marketing Communications
If you have opted in to receive promotional emails or notifications from us, we use your email address and account history to send you offers, bonus announcements, and relevant updates. You can withdraw this consent at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link in any marketing email or by updating your account preferences. We do not send unsolicited marketing to anyone who has not explicitly opted in.
Legal Compliance
We process personal information to the extent necessary to comply with applicable laws and regulations, respond to lawful requests from government agencies or courts, and enforce our Terms and Conditions where a dispute arises.
Legal Basis for Processing
We collect and use your personal information on the following grounds:
- Contractual necessity: Much of the data we process is necessary to provide the service described in our Terms and Conditions. Without it, we cannot operate your account.
- Legal obligation: Certain processing, particularly identity verification and transaction monitoring, is required by the AML/CFT Act 2009, the Gambling Act 2003, and related regulations. We have no discretion to avoid this processing.
- Legitimate interests: We process some data, such as fraud detection signals and site analytics, because doing so is in the legitimate interest of maintaining a safe and functional platform, and those interests are not overridden by your privacy rights.
- Consent: Where we ask for your agreement before processing, such as for marketing communications, we only proceed on the basis of that consent, which you can withdraw at any time.
Sharing Your Personal Information
We do not sell personal information. We do not share it with third parties for their own marketing purposes. We share your information with outside parties only in the following circumstances:
Service Providers
We engage third-party companies to perform specific functions on our behalf. These include payment processors handling NZD and cryptocurrency transactions, identity verification providers who check documents against official databases, game software providers including Play’n Go, Evolution, Playtech Live, PG Soft, BGaming, Evoplay, Ezugi, Spribe, SmartSoft, and others whose platforms deliver games to your account, customer support software providers, and data analytics services. Each of these providers is contractually required to handle your information only as we instruct and to maintain appropriate security standards.
Regulatory and Law Enforcement Bodies
We disclose personal information to government authorities, regulators, or law enforcement agencies when required to do so by law, court order, or regulatory direction. This includes mandatory suspicious transaction reporting to the New Zealand Police Financial Intelligence Unit under the AML/CFT Act. We do not have the legal right to refuse such disclosures.
Fraud Prevention and Industry Databases
We may share certain data with fraud prevention agencies or shared industry databases used to detect and prevent money laundering, fraud, and underage gambling. Information shared in this context is used only for those purposes and is subject to the data handling obligations of each participating organisation.
Business Transfers
If West Casino is sold, merged, or its assets are transferred to another entity, your personal information may be transferred as part of that transaction. Any successor entity would be bound by this Privacy Policy or would provide you with notice of any material changes before using your information differently.
International Transfers of Personal Information
Our operations and some of our service providers are based outside New Zealand. When your personal information is transferred to a country that does not have privacy laws equivalent to the Privacy Act 2020, we take steps to ensure your information is still protected to a comparable standard. This may involve entering into data transfer agreements with receiving parties or confirming that appropriate safeguards exist under the receiving jurisdiction’s laws. By using our services, you acknowledge that your information may be processed in other countries, including Malta, where our casino licence is registered under licence number MGA/B2C/533/2018 with the Malta Gaming Authority.
How Long We Keep Your Information
We retain personal information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purpose for which it was collected, unless a longer retention period is required by law.
- Account records are kept for a minimum of seven years after your account is closed, consistent with AML/CFT Act record-keeping requirements.
- Transaction records, including deposits, withdrawals, bets, and winnings, are retained for seven years.
- Identity verification documents are held for five years after the end of the business relationship, in line with the AML/CFT Act.
- Customer support correspondence is retained for three years from the date of the last interaction on a matter.
- Marketing opt-in records are kept for as long as you hold an account and for a reasonable period afterwards to demonstrate that consent was obtained.
- Technical logs such as IP address records may be retained for up to 12 months for security and fraud prevention purposes.
When information is no longer needed and no legal obligation requires us to keep it, we delete or securely destroy it.
Your Rights Under the Privacy Act 2020
The New Zealand Privacy Act 2020 gives you rights over the personal information we hold about you. We are committed to honouring those rights promptly and without unnecessary obstruction.
Right of Access
You have the right to ask us whether we hold personal information about you and, if so, to receive a copy of that information. We will respond to access requests within 20 working days of receiving them, as required by the Privacy Act 2020. Where a request is complex or extensive, we may take up to an additional 20 working days and will notify you of this extension. We do not charge a fee for reasonable access requests.
Right to Correction
If the personal information we hold about you is inaccurate, incomplete, or out of date, you have the right to ask us to correct it. We will either make the correction or, if we decline, attach a statement of your requested correction to the record so that it is visible to anyone who accesses your information going forward.
Right to Complain
If you believe we have mishandled your personal information or breached the Privacy Act 2020, you have the right to make a complaint. Please contact us first at support@westcasino-nz.com so we have the opportunity to address your concern. If you are not satisfied with our response, you may file a complaint with the New Zealand Privacy Commissioner at www.privacy.org.nz or by calling 0800 803 909.
Withdrawing Consent
Where we process your information on the basis of your consent, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. Withdrawal does not affect the lawfulness of processing that took place before withdrawal. To withdraw consent for marketing, use the unsubscribe link in any promotional email or update your preferences in your account settings. To withdraw consent in other areas, contact us directly.
Cookies and Tracking Technologies
Our website uses cookies and similar technologies to make the site function correctly, remember your preferences, and collect analytics information. Cookies are small text files placed on your device when you visit a website. We use the following categories of cookies:
- Essential cookies: Required for the site to operate. These include session management cookies that keep you logged in and security cookies that protect against cross-site request forgery. You cannot opt out of essential cookies without disabling our service entirely.
- Functional cookies: These remember your preferences, such as your chosen language or display settings, so you do not have to re-enter them on each visit.
- Analytics cookies: These collect aggregate information about how visitors use the site, which pages are visited most frequently, and how users navigate through the lobby and game sections. This data helps us improve the platform. Analytics cookies do not identify you personally.
- Marketing cookies: Where you have consented, these cookies help us show you relevant promotional content based on your interests and activity on our platform.
You can manage cookie preferences through your browser settings. Most browsers allow you to block or delete cookies, though doing so may affect how parts of our site work. For full details on the specific cookies we use and how to manage them, see our Cookie Policy.
Security of Your Personal Information
We apply technical and organisational measures to protect your personal information against unauthorised access, disclosure, alteration, and loss. These include:
- SSL/TLS encryption on all data transmitted between your browser or device and our servers
- Encryption of sensitive stored data, including passwords and financial details
- Access controls that limit which staff members can view personal information, based on their role and need
- Regular security assessments and penetration testing of our platform infrastructure
- Monitoring for unusual activity that could indicate a breach or intrusion attempt
No digital system is completely impenetrable. In the unlikely event of a privacy breach that is likely to cause serious harm, we will notify affected individuals and the New Zealand Privacy Commissioner as soon as practicable, consistent with our obligations under the Privacy Act 2020.
Age Restrictions and Protection of Minors
Our services are available only to individuals who are 18 years of age or older. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. The Gambling Act 2003 places a legal obligation on gambling operators to take reasonable steps to prevent minors from accessing gambling services.
During registration and identity verification, we confirm date of birth and validate identity documents to ensure compliance with this requirement. If we discover that personal information has been collected from a person under 18, we will close the account, return any deposits, void any transactions that took place, and delete the personal information as soon as practicable.
If you believe a minor has registered an account on our platform, please notify us immediately at support@westcasino-nz.com or by calling +64 3 386 0361.
Responsible Gambling and Data Use
West Casino takes harm minimisation seriously. We use data about your account activity to support responsible gambling in the following ways:
- Our systems track deposit frequency, session length, and changes in betting patterns that may indicate a shift toward harmful gambling behaviour.
- Players who trigger internal monitoring thresholds may be contacted by our responsible gambling team. This contact is based on your account data and is intended to offer support, not to pressure you to continue playing.
- When you set a deposit limit, session limit, or self-exclusion through your account, we process that instruction immediately and apply it to your account. Increases to limits require a cooling-off period before taking effect.
- Self-exclusion records are retained after account closure to prevent re-registration during the exclusion period.
If gambling is causing problems for you or someone you know, free confidential support is available through the Problem Gambling Foundation of New Zealand at www.pgf.nz and through the Gambling Helpline on 0800 654 655, which operates around the clock.
Links to External Websites
Our website may contain links to external sites, including game providers, payment processors, and responsible gambling resources. Once you leave westcasino-nz.com, this Privacy Policy no longer applies. We have no control over, and take no responsibility for, the privacy practices of any third-party websites. We encourage you to read the privacy policy of any site you visit before providing personal information.
Changes to This Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, services, or applicable law. When we make material changes, we will notify registered account holders by email or by displaying a prominent notice on the website before the changes take effect. Continued use of our services after any change takes effect constitutes your acceptance of the revised policy. If you do not agree with an updated policy, you should stop using our services and close your account.
How to Contact Us
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, wish to exercise your rights under the Privacy Act 2020, or want to make a complaint about how we have handled your personal information, you can reach us through any of the following:
- Email: support@westcasino-nz.com
- Phone: +64 3 386 0361
- Post: West Casino, Level 3, 2 Cathedral Square, Christchurch 8011, New Zealand
- Live chat: Available 24 hours a day through the Contact Us page on our website
We will acknowledge privacy-related requests within five working days and aim to resolve them in full within 20 working days. If your matter requires more time, we will keep you informed of progress throughout. If you remain dissatisfied after we have responded, you are entitled to refer your complaint to the Office of the New Zealand Privacy Commissioner at www.privacy.org.nz.