SUPERMARKET SWIPE
FORMER Armagh footballer Oisin Mcconville was once a gambling addict and now counsels on the problem. He said:
“I actually have evidence of several customers and one customer in particular from one of the border counties in the South who gambled €40,000 in cash in one day and he was never asked where that money was coming from.
“He was able to go into that bookies the next day and gamble again. This was him going into shops. His highest single biggest bet was
€16,000.
“Bookmakers are doing very little. They’re ticking boxes because they’re supposed to tick these boxes. If I tried to put that bet on in most other places I wouldn’t be able.
“Lets say Australia for A spokesman for bookmakers Paddy Power said:
“Paddy Power takes responsible gambling very seriously. It’s crucial for the future of our business that our customers bet in a fun, safe, enjoyable way and have positive experiences to share with their friends.
“To support this we have range of tools online to help customers manage their play. These are all detailed on our dedicated responsible gambling website: https://responsiblegaming.paddypower. com/ and include deposit limits [where a Shop boss stole €315,000 to feed gambling addiction example, which would have had a seriously bad reputation and still has as far is gambling is concerned.
“If you walk in with that [€16,000] you won’t get it on unless ID and verification of where those funds came from and that’s anything from €2,000 up.
“Now I was told that was being mooted as part of more stringent legislation here. “Is a bookmaker going to voluntarily do that? I don’t think so. That’s going to have to be forced upon them.
“If somebody goes in and does that [bets €40,000] the first person they need to look at is themselves, but all I’m saying is the gambling industry and the Government are complicit in helping compulsive gamblers gamble to the point where they are ruining their lives.
“In the short-term bookmakers need to make sure nobody under 18 is gambling in their shops and online and there’s not enough being done to ensure that.
“They also need to put limits on bets.” customer can limit the amount of money they spend], loss limits, [where a customer can limit the amount they can lose], and session timers that provide a reality check on gaming products that don’t have a natural break in play.
“Customers can also self-exclude entirely from our website, this makes their account inaccessible and can be enacted for different periods of time.
“If customers don’t use the tools available then our teams can and do intervene pro-actively when we spot signs of potential harm. Our retail teams are also trained to intervene and selfexclusion is available from shops.
“Though we hope it never gets this far, we also fund research and treatment initiatives to support problem gambling across the regions in which we operate, including Dunlewey Addiction Services in Ireland.”