Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I concur with those comments. While the petitioner has focused on the standing of a pay-out, it is just one small issue. The gambling control Bill will provide for an independent regulatory body. This was a key decision made by the Government last year to change the original proposal to have an in-house regulatory body in the Department of Justice and Equality. It is important that there be a stand-alone body.

I was on radio last week discussing the gaming industry. I am concerned that ten year old children are playing games which involve loot and mystery boxes. Different countries have taken different approaches to whether this is an e-commerce activity or gambling. We still have to make a decision on this issue as part of an amendment to the Gaming and Lotteries Act. The thrill people get in opening a loot box is akin to the adrenalin rush one gets in scratching a scratch card. It is a dangerous activity for young people to be exposed to.

I agree with Deputy Cassells. I, too, like to have a bet at the big race meetings a couple of times a year. I am lucky that I can go three or four months without having a bet. It does not bother me either but where people have that weakness, it is devastating. In a presentation I received not too long ago from health practitioners who deal with those who suffer from addiction, they stated the addiction most difficult to recover from undoubtedly is gambling because one loses one's family support network more so than with the others. People can understand a person needing to take alcohol or a drug, if that is his or her addiction. They can understand how that happens. What they cannot understand is when somebody sober stands in front of them, promises he or she will never gamble again and then walks out and gambles away money he or she does not have such as that week's grocery money, mortgage payment or whatever. The trust breaks completely. For anybody to get out of addiction, he or she needs that support network around him or her. That is how hard it is.

People say to me that they book their holidays to leave the country in Cheltenham week. They know when the sports segments are on the radio but during that week, bookmakers appear on every programme and there is no getting away from it. It is pervasive. If one has that weakness, one cannot even watch a soccer match now without the price at which Messi is to score the next goal coming up at half-time. It is everywhere.

In terms of advertising and proper regulation in the gaming sector, we need this independent body. I am happy for this committee to do a little more work in this area to complement the work that has been done by the Department of Justice and Equality.