I have seen what a gambling addiction can do: it’s terrifying and it cries out for tough regulation

REGULAR readers of this newspaper should be well aware by now of the addictive nature of smartphones and of the dangers they pose to children. However, we should not ignore the dangers to adults too, especially when combined with another deadly addiction, that of gambling.

It is so easy to gamble now if you have a mobile phone. You download an app from one, or more, of the many internet gambling companies, or bookmakers, that are available. You load up your account with money – and it is not difficult to persuade one of these companies to let you do so. You may even get credit from the bookmaker for setting up the account – and undoubtedly in the future you will be offered more credit or supposedly enhanced odds from promotions regularly sent to you by email, encouraging you to log into your account.

You will have the opportunity to gamble almost any time of the day and night, from the comfort of your own sofa, kitchen table, bed or office desk – or maybe the pub where you’re sweating over the outcome of the match or contest you’re watching and your inhibitions are reduced by the intake of alcohol.

Note, it is not just the outcome of horse or dog races that people bet on now, as used to be traditional. It’s not just the results of a football, rugby or hurling match either: you can bet on the time of the first and last score, the number of times the ball goes out of play, the margin of victory and a myriad of other likelihoods. Or it might be who gets eliminated from this week’s Dancing With The Stars or the number of votes they get from individual judges. We also have ‘exchanges’ where people can set themselves up as bookies, taking bets from people who disagree with the odds you’re setting. You are ‘advised’ not to forget to set limits on what you can lose.

Here’s another thing: the betting doesn’t have to take place on independently operated and moderated events, where you can have some confidence that the outcome won’t to be fixed: literally, people can now bet on which of two flies will go up a wall faster, as long as somebody has a camera to allow for broadcast.

There are websites like youbetme.com where you and your social connections can bet on just about anything, such as who among your group will lose more weight before a particular date. If gambling was once a largely male occupation then there is evidence to suggest female millennials have bitten the bug too. They play in a range of ‘virtual’ online settings: casinos, slot machines, poker and blackjack are brought to the masses in a country that has been very carefully traditionally about allowing such live venues.

The ease with which people can lose money through gambling has always been a concern. That is why there have been reasonably tight restrictions on the opening hours for bookmaker shops and blocks on where they could be located, especially near public houses. We still have 1,100 of them, however. But they are no longer the main problem.

While there have been no limits as to what people can gamble – personal liberty dictating that a fool and his money can be parted easily if that’s what someone wants to do with their own cash – there are estimates that Irish people lost €2.1billion to bookmakers last year and that about half of that was through online gambling.

Borrowed

This is not just anecdote and hearsay. The first national study into online gambling in Ireland, published this week, revealed, among other things, that 64% of people felt they might have a problem with gambling and 62% had bet more than they could afford to lose. Even more worryingly, three quarters of online gamblers in Ireland have borrowed money or sold something in order to place a bet. The majority, 76%, of the 208 respondents to the survey said they strongly agreed or agreed that the potential dangers of gambling should be made known to people.

The Irish Bookmakers Association is an organisation that represents Paddy Power Betfair, Boylesports, Ladbrokes and many operators. Last week, it called for an independent regulator to be established ‘as soon as possible’ to investigate the scale of problem gambling. I suspect they already know all of the issues and the extent. They are gambling that they can buy time – and that government will be too supine to put controls in place, including greater taxation that could be used to fund protection and treatment services.

There are people prepared to take issue with what is being done to society by this growth in reckless behaviour. I did some work recently with the Rutland Centre in Dublin, which provides addiction counselling, interviewing people about their addictions and treatment. It was a real eye-opener. I met prominent sports stars who got help there to deal with the devastation caused to their lives (and that of their partners, parents and siblings) by gambling addiction. I learnt of their mood swings – highs, lows, irritability and short-tempered responses – unhappiness, depression and dishonest behaviour, such as theft. I heard of secretive and evasive behaviour, their utter preoccupation with the next bet, insomnia and even hygiene and grooming issues. I was told of bills left unpaid. Despair was in evidence.

Dr Colin O’Gara is a consultant psychiatrist and head of addiction services at Saint John of God Hospital who is prepared to call out the problem for what it is – and to warn how it is in danger of becoming an Irish epidemic. He has used international evidence to show that gambling disorder is an addiction similar to alcoholism.

‘Although we currently do not have data on the prevalence of gambling disorder in Ireland, our clinical observations on presentations for treatment suggest it is an increasing problem. This appears to be as a result of the increased availability of gambling both within bookmakers and online,’ Dr O’Gara said this week in a research paper that was published.

He wants us to talk about the problem more openly, because information could help some people better to deal with their addictions. ‘Gamblers have a distorted view of how much they have bet and how much they have lost or won over time, so any information that helps address that is to be welcomed,’ he said.

The Government is working on legislation – the first serious reform of the gambling laws in 60 years – that is meant to cover new developments in online gambling and social media advertising. There will be a new independent regulator which will have the power to investigate companies and remove licences. The law will also force gambling companies to pay into a social fund if they want to operate in Ireland. The fear is that in the internet era, with the ability to use an app to access services outside of Ireland, such efforts may be redundant.

I know there are people who will say this is just the latest evidence of efforts to impose a nanny state, that people should have the freedom to do what they choose. I used to be liberal in that regard over gambling, but not any more.

The price is too high.