DIA Searches Christchurch Pub Over Pokies Grant Body Air Rescue Services

^{Pokie machines line the wall of a New Zealand pub. The Department of Internal Affairs regulates gaming machine societies like Air Rescue Services under the Gambling Act 2003. (Photo: Yamaguchi売 / Wikimedia Commons)}

New Zealand's Department of Internal Affairs searched Cranford Ale House on Cranford Street in the Christchurch suburb of Papanui on Friday, 26 September 2026, as part of an investigation into gaming machine operations connected to Air Rescue Services Limited.

A DIA spokesperson confirmed the search but declined to detail its scope. In comments reported by the New Zealand Herald, the spokesperson said: 'We can confirm that we have active investigations underway in relation to both Gambling Act compliance issues and other matters, but we are not in a position to provide any further details at this stage.'

A second search warrant was executed at a residential property the same day. That property belongs to Air Rescue Services managing director Barry Steans, according to the same report.

What Air Rescue Services Does

According to Air Rescue Services' own account of its operations, the society was incorporated in February 2002 to operate gaming machines and distribute the net proceeds to charitable and community organisations. It also trades as Air Rescue and Community Services and now runs 501 gaming machines across 30 member venues in the Canterbury, West Coast, Marlborough, Wellington, Manawatū-Whanganui and Auckland regions.

Under New Zealand's Gambling Act 2003, societies that hold class 4 gambling operator licences must return a minimum share of gaming machine profits to authorised community purposes in the areas where the machines are located. New Zealand's pokie sector is one of the most heavily regulated forms of gambling in the country precisely because of that community-funding model.

The DIA has previously acted against gaming machine societies found to have breached those rules. In August, the regulator recovered NZ$11.5 million from a suspended operator after finding shortfalls in community grant distributions, one of its largest enforcement actions to date.

Investigation Still Open

Neither Air Rescue Services nor Steans had commented publicly on the searches at the time of writing. The DIA has not said when it expects to conclude its inquiry or whether any charges will follow.

'We can confirm that we have active investigations underway in relation to both Gambling Act compliance issues and other matters, but we are not in a position to provide any further details at this stage.'

The Gambling Act gives the DIA powers to suspend or cancel a society's operator licence, order the repayment of misused funds, and refer serious breaches for prosecution. Its most recent enforcement actions against gaming machine societies have focused on grant-distribution shortfalls rather than criminal conduct, though the department has not said which of those categories this investigation falls into.

Class 4 gambling, the legal category covering pub and club pokie machines, is the largest form of non-casino gambling in New Zealand by turnout. Societies such as Air Rescue Services are required to hold an operator's licence for each venue and a licence for every individual machine, and must file regular returns showing how much of their gaming machine profit was returned to authorised purposes in the community.

Each of Air Rescue Services' 30 member venues can run up to 18 machines under its licence conditions, with net proceeds distributed as grants to charitable and community groups across the six regions it covers. Any finding that a society under-returned funds, or misused its licence in some other way, typically triggers a DIA compliance order before more serious enforcement follows.