Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This section amends the principal Act to provide that “a bookmaker’s licence shall, in addition to authorising the licensed bookmaker concerned to carry on the business of, and act as, a bookmaker, authorise that licensed bookmaker to accept bets by remote means, provided that the value of all such bets in any year does not exceed the lower of €250,000 or 10% of the licensed bookmaker’s turnover". This has been raised with me by several independent bookmakers who accept bets by telephone. They view the threshold as quite low and feel that it should be higher. If they have to submit a separate remote bookmaker’s licence, a significant cost is incurred.