Stop dithering over gambling controls
Ministers fail to enact own laws, say campaigners
MINISTERS must do more to control gambling and enact tougher laws, say campaigners. The Government had put forward the Gambling Control Bill in 2013 to regulate the sector but the measures have yet to become law.
Last week junior justice minister David Stanton said the Bill, proposed five years ago, is already out of date in the modern online gambling world.
The Bill would have made it illegal to provide gambling on credit, to provide services not covered by their licences and to offer services outside of permitted hours or on prohibited days. It also placed restrictions on promotions, discounts and advertising.
Mr Stanton said it was a complicated area and said much of the 2013 Gambling Control Bill is ‘out of date at this stage’.
But campaigner Barry Grant, the CEO of Problem Gambling Ireland, rejected the minister’s comment and says he wants the legislation passed.
‘To the best of my knowledge, there is no development that would make the 2013 Bill “out of date”,’ said Mr Grant. ‘It is certainly a far-sight better than our current legislation, which dates back to 1929, 1931 and 1956.
‘The Government needs to get the 2013 Bill or Fianna Fáil’s 2018 Bill enacted as soon as humanly possible, in order to protect vulnerable adults and young people from experiencing gamblingrelated harm.’
The issue of gambling advertising was brought back into focus by President Michael D Higgins last week when he called for a ban on gambling in sport while speaking at the All-Ireland hurling semi-final.
In 2013, the Government brought forward a proposal to legislate for the gambling sector with the Gambling Control Bill. However, the proposal stalled at the Heads of Bill stage and never progressed to the Oireachtas.
The Bill would have set out strict rules that gambling companies would have to abide by or their managers face stiff fines and/or imprisonment.
In addition the Bill also proposed to make it an offence for anyone to cheat at, or assist another person to cheat, when gambling.
Earlier this year, three Fianna Fáil TDs, Jim O’Callaghan, Jack Chambers, and Anne Rabbitte, proposed a similar Gambling Control Bill. It progressed to the second stage in the Dáil but has gone no further.
‘The fact the Fianna Fáil’s 2018 Gambling Control Bill has made more progress than the Government’s own Bill should be a source of embarrassment to them,’ said Mr Grant.
Meanwhile, Mr Chambers called an update to the 2013 Bill ‘a complete waste of time’.
Irish bookmakers have already taken it upon themselves to implement policies that would probably be in the final Bill on a voluntary basis, according Sharon Byrne of the Irish Bookmakers Association.
A report published last year by the industry research group H2 Gambling Capital showed that Ireland has the third highest rate of gambling losses on a per capita basis, with a significant proportion of it being lost online.
Proposals ‘already out of date’