Anger over morning dog racing
CAMPAIGN groups struggling to save families from the horrors of gambling addiction are upset at plans to start greyhound races at the early hour of 8.18am – seemingly to cater for bookies in Britain and online betting.
Barry Grant, of Problem with Gambling Ireland, said: ‘Greed trumps common sense.’
‘Greed trumps common sense’ Betting over several hours
TWO Irish greyhound tracks are set to hold races at an astonishingly early hour – just after 8am – when most people are heading to work. The move has caused deep concern among gambling addiction groups who have described it as ‘a shocking development’.
The race meetings, the first of their kind ever in this country, will start at Kilkenny next month and at Kilcohan Park in Waterford city in the new year – and will see the racing getting under way at 8.18am.
The idea is seemingly aimed at British gamblers who can go to their local bookie as early as 7.30am, unlike here where betters must wait until at least 9am.
However, it’s understood the races will be available to watch online here as well, once they place a bet on the race.
Barry Grant, chief executive of Problem with Gambling Ireland, said he believed the early-morning races are all about targeting punters in the UK and Ireland and have nothing to do with entertaining local greyhound fans.
He said: ‘I can’t imagine there will be many people at these events. They seem to be designed solely for the purpose of the online gambling market, which is already saturated.’
He said it was a case of ‘greed trumps common sense’. He added: ‘It is certainly a shocking development. Unfortunately, many of the people who contact our service are already gambling through the night on virtual greyhound and horse races, as well as other online gambling products.’
The meetings will be held in Kilkenny on Wednesday mornings and on Thursday in Kilcohan Park Greyhound Stadium, Waterford.
Spectators who buy race cards for these early mornings will be able to watch and bet on nine to 12 races over several hours.
The races will be broadcast by broadcasting service SIS, which already owns the exclusive rights to broadcast several greyhound meetings in Ireland, including from Limerick, Cork, Tralee, Mullrespond ingar and Youghal. Director of Tote Wagering and IT with the Irish Greyhound Board, Joe Lewins, said the deal would give Irish greyhound racing better coverage.
‘Irish Greyhound Racing is now broadcast to in excess of 4,000 betting shops in the UK. This gives the IGB, and the Irish greyhound industry as a whole, further opportunity to showcase our racing product to the SIS audience and to build on the success of the meetings currently being broadcast throughout Ireland and the UK.
‘The IGB welcomes the extension of the SIS programme in both Waterford and Kilkenny. We will continue to promote the product so that Irish greyhound racing can benefit from those exposures and revenues.’
SIS’s greyhound offering currently includes 30,000 races a year. The IGB did not to questions from the Irish Daily Mail on whether it believed the early morning meetings could exacerbate problem gamblers’ addiction.
Ireland was recently found to have the third highest rate of online gambling losses per capita in the world, after Australia and Singapore.
Despite calls for regulation of the industry, the laws governing gambling in Ireland date from the Betting Act of 1931 and the Gaming and Lotteries Act of 1956.
The Irish Bookmakers Association, which represents Paddy Power Betfair, Boylesports, Ladbrokes and many operators, has itself called for an independent regulator to be established ‘as soon as possible’ to investigate the scale of problem gambling.
A new Gambling Control Bill was first introduced in the Dáil in 2013 but has not made substantial progress.
Minister of State David Stanton recently said that a working group will present a proposal to the Government by the end of this year. Comment – Page 14
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