The Irish Examiner reports
If you hadn’t already heard gambling regulation is coming hard and fast — with sweeping changes across the €7 billion industry.
The Paddy Powers and BoyleSports of this world are rightly fearful of legislation, which will badly damage how it markets and communicates with customers and how it presents itself publicly.
But how will regulation affect the average sports punters — those who love to flutter without any of the addiction or problem issues that have forced such changes to the industry?
According to the Minister of State charged with enforcing new laws by 2023, gambling regulation is good news for the customers.
Junior Minister James Browne said amongst the raft of legislation changes will be clear objectives to protect gamblers’ rights — and all punishable by penalties of up to €20m in fines, or 10% of overall revenues for the betting companies who fail to comply.
In an interview with the Irish Examiner to discuss the major changes ahead of gambling regulation, Browne explains that change is needed as much to deal with problem gamblers, as problem bookies.
Under the current rules, there are no rules — the punter has no rights. For example, if a bookmaker simply doesn’t want to pay you, they don’t have to.
This Wild West approach to betting has never been discussed by the big gambling companies, and that is just one of the reasons why the laws must change.
“There is no law, for example, for betting companies to pay out, no duty to pay you if you win,” explained the Department of Justice junior minister.
“Because gambling for whatever reason operates on old laws (that go back to the 1950s and even the 1930s). So that’s where there must be better protections through consumer rights and that will come in.”
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https://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/othersport/arid-40770321.html
