Six60 is coming under fire after launching a $3 Six60 scratchie in partnership with Instant Kiwi, with claims the wildly popular band's involvement could worsen New Zealand's gambling problem.
The tickets offer "over $1.3 million in prizes", with three top payouts of $60,000 a pop.
Comedian Guy Williams tweeted that he felt the promotional scratch card was "not right, eh", calling it a "targeted gambling campaign aimed at young people".
"I hope this campaign blows up and shines a light on how sneaky the marketing is," Williams continued.
"I don’t wanna have a go at Six60. I would find it hard to turn away the money they probably got for this, but I think it was a mistake. This is the tip of the iceberg. Shits not right," he finished.
Lotto NZ, of which Instant Kiwi is a part, says 100 percent of their profits go to local charities, but Andree Froude from the Problem Gambling Foundation echoes Williams sentiments that it's not good enough.
"It's really disappointing to see such a well-known Kiwi band associated with an age-restricted gambling product that can cause harm in our communities," Froude told Newshub.
"Often it is the more vulnerable in our communities that are targeted, and they may spend more than they can afford, and it might mean that they're not able to put food on the table."
Froude felt that while Six60 appealed to a range of demographics, the scratchie was "certainly targeting young people", adding that scratchie tickets were "one of the more harmful forms of gambling" due to their instant results.
Meanwhile, the scratchie also drew backlash on social media, with commenters expressing their disappointment on Instant Kiwi's Facebook page.
"Cool to see young Kiwi musicians supporting NZ's gambling problems like this. Keep up the good work guys," one Facebook user sarcastically addressed Six60.
"Yeah, you have talent. But let's not create an addiction," wrote another.
"Is that a first? I can't recall anything like this being done before. It's pretty disgusting," one Reddit user wrote on the Aotearoa subreddit.
Six60 themselves have not yet publicly commented on the controversy.
