Ireland: Elements of new gambling laws like a ‘bucket full of holes’

The Irish Examiner

Sections of Ireland’s proposed new gambling legislation have been likened to a “bucket full of holes” by a leading advocate for tougher curbs on the industry, who has urged the Government to shore up the plans before they become law.

Issues identified include proposals for self-exclusion for problem gamblers, a lack of clarity over the ban on gaming machines in pubs, and the lack of details around the operation of a ‘social impact fund’ to provide treatment for problem gamblers.

In mid-November, the Government approved far-reaching gambling legislation aimed at curbing the damaging impact of problem gambling and to bring Ireland’s gambling laws into the 21st century.

However, the actual legislation was not published until last Friday,  December 2. Over 170 pages long, the Bill covers a wide spectrum of gambling-related issues and the establishment of the new Gambling Regulatory Authority.

Concern

Barry Grant, counsellor and project manager at Extern Problem Gambling, said there are many positives within the legislation but also major sources of concern.

He said that, under the proposals, a customer would have to have an online account with a particular bookie for them to self-exclude.

“That’s the opposite of what you want,” Mr Grant said.

“We’ve worked with a lot of people who’ve tried to stop gambling, so they self-exclude with Paddy Power. But then they open an account with Boyles. And then Ladbrokes, and on and on indefinitely. That is not a joined-up system that helps anybody.”

The UK gambling regulator operates a blanket self-exclusion system that allows people to bar themselves from all operators and something similar should be implemented here, along with a system for betting shops.

Ban on gaming machines

The proposed new legislation would repeal the 1956 Gaming & Lotteries Act, which included a ban on gaming machines in premises licenced to sell liquor.

Mr Grant said gambling and alcohol “don’t mix” and it would be of extreme concern if the new legislation inadvertently opened the door to allowing such machines in pubs up and down the country, such as exist in the UK and Australia.

He singled out no mention of affordability checks, source of wealth checks, or gambling harm in the Bill as further sources for concern, and said it should be incumbent on the industry to provide relevant data to create a picture of such harms in Ireland.

“It is imperative that the Regulator can examine data sets in order to have a real-time picture of the level of harms being caused and the impact of any interventions to reduce harm,” he said.

Mr Grant also said that the social impact fund, to support problem gambling treatments with funds from the industry, will be left to the Minister of the day to provide for what percentage of industry turnover should go towards it.

“There is a huge amount of ‘catching up’ to do, in order to bring services up to par with substance addiction services,” he said.

“It is imperative that sufficient funds are allocated for these purposes.”

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https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-41022749.html