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UK began a landmark review into its gambling laws this week - Ireland doesn't even have a regulator yet

Legislation that would create a regulator in Ireland was first proposed by the government seven years ago.

AS THE UK ordered a review of its gambling laws this week, the Irish government has again reiterated that it won’t be enacting landmark legislation until next year at the earliest.

The UK has had a gambling regulator since 2005 and has, like Ireland, witnessed a huge move towards online and mobile gambling in the last decade. The value of the Irish gambling market annually is estimated at €8-10 billion.

But Ireland, on the other hand, doesn’t even have a regulator yet and legislation drafted by the government in 2013 that would create one still hasn’t passed through the Dáil.

It comes amid calls for a dedicated gambling prevalence survey to understand the scale of the issues around problem gambling in Ireland as well as a problem gambling awareness campaign.

The HSE has said its own figures don’t paint an accurate picture of the scale of problem gambling in Ireland while a significant survey that includes statistics on gambling in Ireland won’t be published until mid-2021.

UK review

The UK first introduced its regulator, the Gambling Commission, 15 years ago. It provides licences to operators of betting, lotteries, bingos, casinos and remote gambling across the UK.

It sets requirements for those it grants licences to and can take action, including enforcement and fines, against those who breach the rules.

The fines it dishes out can run into the millions, such as a £2.8 million fine given to Boylesports last month after an investigation found the company failed to have appropriate money laundering risk assessment.

However, a review of the work of the Gambling Commission and gambling laws in the UK have been long mooted and, this week, the British government launched its landmark review.

It said: “Online restrictions, marketing and the powers of the Gambling Commission will be looked at as part of a call for evidence, to examine in detail how gambling has changed over the past 15 years.

“Protections for online gamblers like stake and spend limits, advertising and promotional offers and whether extra protections for young adults are needed will all be explored.

The review will also look at evidence on the action customers can take where they feel operators have breached social responsibility requirements, such as intervening to protect customers showing clear signs of problematic play, and how to ensure children and young people are kept safe from gambling-related harm.

In a debate in the House of Commons, the government was also urged to prevent social media influencers from encouraging children and young people to gamble.

Sports minister Nigel Huddleston said that action would also be taken on betting advertising in sport if there was “evidence of harm” in relation to it.

Separately, reviews are also under way in the UK into loot boxes in video games and into VIP schemes operated by gambling companies.

Situation in Ireland

Speaking to TheJournal.ie last month, Barry Grant from problem gambling charity Extern said that the government had been “twiddling its thumbs” for years on regulating gambling in Ireland.

New laws to regulate gambling were first proposed over seven years ago by the Fine Gael-Labour government with the Gambling Control Bill 2013.

However, this legislation that would modernise Ireland’s gambling laws has never been brought in and wasn’t advanced under the previous government.

In the new programme for government, a commitment is made in this area. It says: “We will establish a gambling regulator focused on public safety and wellbeing, covering gambling online and in person and the powers to regulate advertising, gambling websites and apps.”

When that will actually happen, however, is uncertain.

This week, Minister of State James Browne said that the development of modern gambling legislation is a “priority” for the government, in response to a parliamentary question.

“This reform includes a new independent gambling regulator to enforce necessary and appropriate licensing and regulatory measures in respect of all gambling activities, including online,” he said.

Work is underway in my Department on the drafting of a General Scheme of a new Bill to provide for the modern licensing and regulatory provisions for the gambling industry. That work will involve a major updating of the proposals of the General Scheme of the Gambling Control Bill 2013. I hope to be in a position to bring proposals in that regard to government next year.

At the end of November, Browne said that “seed funding” of €200,000 for the establishment of a new regulator had been granted under Budget 2021.

This body will be responsible for regulating to protect vulnerable persons including age restrictions, staff training, self-exclusion measures and controls on advertising, promotions and sponsorship.

It is also envisioned that it will administer a new social fund, that will support research, information, campaigns and even treatments. 

For campaigners, this long overdue regulator would be a welcome move to help safeguard vulnerable people.

Grant said: “We’re so far behind the curve, it’s not like we’re some technological backwater. We’re at the cutting edge of tech in this country. Surely someone somewhere can get a grip on this.

It’s a new world… bookies shops was one thing. When you put all that stuff in an app on someone’s phone, it does bring up a whole set of problems. It’s not beyond the government to come up with a solution. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel to do it. 

One aspect that is called for is a comprehensive study on the extent of the issues around problem gambling in Ireland.

Sinn Féin’s Thomas Gould has called for a dedicated gambling prevalence survey. In a statement, he said that it’s needed “so we can understand the scale of the problem, and we also need the rolling out of a problem gambling awareness campaign”.

However, there is little data on how prevalent the issue is in Ireland, at present.

Junior Health Minister Frank Feighan said earlier this month that the 2018/19 HRB national survey on drug and alcohol use – which includes data on gambling – will publish its data in mid-2021.

Gould added: “Problem gambling is too serious for our health service to not have a comprehensive understanding of the issue, and the gambling industry cannot continue to be essentially unregulated.

“The Minister recently gave me an assurance the legislation would be published by the end of 2021. This is simply too long to wait. We already have legislation waiting.

“The Gambling Control Bill, which has been gathering dust since 2013, needs to be progressed… The issue is too big for the government to abdicate responsibility and leave it to others.”

With reporting from PA

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14 Comments
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    Mute Brinster
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    Dec 11th 2016, 1:12 PM

    This is such an important article.

    Senator Gerard Craughwell is the latest to try to exploit ignorance and fear for his own publicity by jumping on the anti-vax bandwagon. Cynical and irresponsible.

    Measles kills babies who are too young to be immunised.

    The only way to protect them is “herd immunity” – ensuring that everyone who is old enough is vaccinated, so the disease is effectively eradicated.

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    Mute Philip King
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    Dec 11th 2016, 2:04 PM

    Could you imagine how stupid you would feel after losing an infant to polio, the measles or some other preventable disease because of some shite you read on Facebook claiming to be a legitimate scientific study, making outlandish connections in an attempt to confirm some weird conspiracy. If vaccinations were dangerous there wouldn’t be a nurse or doctor in the country.

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    Mute Shawn O'Ceallaghan
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    Dec 11th 2016, 6:07 PM
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    Mute Philip King
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    Dec 11th 2016, 6:31 PM

    Thanks for sharing that irrelevant article.

    78
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    Mute John O'Driscoll
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    Dec 11th 2016, 8:16 PM

    @Brinster: Scentific thinking should be taught as a discipline along with logic, debate, rationality, philosophy, crtical thinking as a subject from around the age of 13 in schools. A compulsory one. Wouldn’t do the astrologists and crystal-sellers and anti-vaxers a whole lot of good biz wise but it might advance the campaign against deadly communicable childhood diseases inter alia.

    44
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    Mute Danny Rafferty
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    Dec 12th 2016, 12:33 AM

    The religious patrons of our schools would never allow it John.

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    Mute Eye_c_u
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    Dec 12th 2016, 7:47 AM

    Wonder do parents get prosecuted for manslaughter if they allow a child to die of preventable disease

    19
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    Mute Mr D
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    Dec 13th 2016, 1:36 PM

    @Philip King: could you imagine how stupid you would feel if your child developed autism from those vaccinations.

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    Mute Philip King
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    Dec 13th 2016, 1:49 PM

    Do you have any peer reviewed scientific evidence to support that claim or did you just read a book by Jenny McCarty who has by the way changed her tune on the whole issue.

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    Mute David Hanlon
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    Dec 11th 2016, 1:28 PM

    Amazing story of a disease which most people living now,would I suspect have very little knowledge of.

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    Mute Brendan Hughes
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    Dec 11th 2016, 1:11 PM

    Words fail me.

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    Mute John O'Driscoll
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    Dec 11th 2016, 8:13 PM

    @Brendan Hughes: ”Brave” ”Gracious” ”Altruistic” ”Kind” ”Intelligent” ”Unembittered” ”Man”. They don’t me.

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    Mute Mandy Seiler
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    Dec 11th 2016, 9:00 PM

    I had the pleasure of working with Jim years ago. He is all that and more. Never had a bad word for anybody, never heard him complain. Jim’s motivation never seemed to cease. If it did, he never let on. He adapted his iron lung to be as self sufficient as possible; was therefore able to read, answer his own phone, etc. Jim as as warmhearted, kind and generous as he is intelligent, determined and innovative. He is an inspiration and will always have my admiration.

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    Mute molly coddled
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    Dec 11th 2016, 1:32 PM

    I can understand exactly what Mr Costello is advocating and is very deserving of this award. My grandaunt who was a gifted pianist got struck down with polio at the age of 16 before polio immunisation became available (pre 1957) the consequences were devastating, paralysed with twisted useless hands and withered limbs, confined to a chair by the fire for the rest of her life as the cold made her suffering greater, she died at the age of 75. A life I would not wish upon anyone, immunisation is essential.

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    Mute Joe Harbison
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    Dec 11th 2016, 1:30 PM

    It’s actually getting a bit worrying. Even on this site you get people referencing false news and misleading reports to try and support their arguments that vaccination is dangerous. We even had someone imply that the campaign that essentially eradicated Polio was in some way dangerous. The evidence for the risk versus benefit of vaccination is pretty near incontrovertible but people still make claims that ‘the truth is being suppressed’ as there is virtually no scientific evidence to support them. The question is how much attention is it sensible to give anti vaxxers. You can run through their arguments with a coach and horses but their antipathy has nothing to do with logic or science and you never change their mind. They just think you are part of the ‘conspiracy’. However, they thrive on the attention. I suspect it’s a reason some do it my making them feel clever and important like the fools who call in hoax fire reports to 999. The problem is vaccination rates are dropping as people decide ‘well it’s not worth taking the chance as who gets measles, or whooping cough or diphtheria these days anyway’, forgetting that the reason people don’t is because of vaccination and herd immunity.

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    Mute John B
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    Dec 11th 2016, 2:47 PM

    Stories like this are important because perhaps they help combat the main downfall of vaccines. And that is their success. People who live wrapped in cotton wool with western medicine have no appreciation of what these diseases did.

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    Mute Lilly Passet
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    Dec 11th 2016, 3:49 PM

    This is such an important article! I can’t even begin to describe how sick and tired I am getting of those people who say that when you vaccinate your child, you poisoin them and that the cons (the imagined side effects from aluminium, or that there is rather poisoin in the liquid etc) FAR outweigh the pros ( immunise the child against deadly diseases by injecting a small number of inactive viruses, which cannot attach to cells and use them to reproduce, making hundreds more viruses. They just don’t get it. They simply don’t do their research and make decisions based on gossip.
    And by doing so put their own and other children, who are too young for a specific vacation, at risk

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    Mute winston smith
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    Dec 11th 2016, 1:44 PM

    I don’t think you can blame parents for worrying about various vaccinees being injected into their infants…it’s pretty terrifying, but like most things in life it has certain risk involved but after reading this article and others on the various childhood diseases of the past I know what option I would take.

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    Mute Brinster
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    Dec 11th 2016, 2:01 PM

    @winston smith:

    I really don’t understand why you would believe that vaccines are terrifying.

    They are among humanity’s greatest achievements.

    If it does cause anxiety, do as much research as possible. Talk to doctors. Read The Vaccine Book by Bob Sears.

    And definitely read up on what these diseases could do to your children. That’s really terrifying.

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    Mute Philip King
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    Dec 11th 2016, 2:18 PM

    The only bad thing about vaccinations is the fact that you have to watch your child have an injection. I really don’t know why it’s terrifying. In all Likelihood you were vaccinated and you turned out ok…… oh wait a minute!

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    Mute Drew TheChinaman :)
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    Dec 11th 2016, 4:42 PM

    Hey idiots worrying about injecting things into your infants? No need to worry… the polio vaccine is delivered orally via a sugar cube.

    Seems like the kind of most basic fact you would have come across in all this extensive research and reading you claim to have done to form such a strong anti-vaccination opinion.

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    Mute Philip King
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    Dec 11th 2016, 4:51 PM

    Hey Drew! Read the comments and try to understand what people are saying before you shoot your mouth off. Comprehension is a big part of having a discussion.

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    Mute Dublin Living
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    Dec 11th 2016, 6:05 PM

    @winston smith: Maybe they should be terrified of their child getting polio or measles or TB.

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    Mute Martin Byrne
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    Dec 12th 2016, 6:53 AM

    Winston – it’s terrifying if you’re ignorant and believe anti-vaxx woo.

    Measles, Rubella syndrome, mumps, polio – all much more terrible.

    I did some work in the blind-deaf community and with a friend who is profoundly deaf and partially sighted. Rubella caused that. Thank science for vaccinations.

    I think it’s everyone’s duty to be vocal about this – we owe it to the kids who will endure terrible pain and suffering if we don’t

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    Mute Mary Beirne
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    Dec 12th 2016, 2:20 AM

    I agree wholeheartedly with Jim, this disease has devastating consequence. I had the privilege of looking after Jim in Cherry Orchard Hospital some years ago and a kinder, nicer man you could not meet

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    Mute winston smith
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    Dec 11th 2016, 10:41 PM

    The verdict is out on delivering multiple vaccines into infants whose immune system is only partially developed…I have had my children vaccinated and I can say as a parent it’s terrifying when you must make critical decsions for your fragile child that you have brought into the world and you are totally responsible for. I decided not to vaccinate against swine flu a few years back after listening to various ‘experts’ casting their nays and yeas and I am happy I made the correct decision. The Polio vaccine has been a great success and I applaud this but not all vaccines will have such success and in time if viruses mutate we might be at risk again.

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