Ms Sharon Byrne:

I thank the Chairman, Deputies and Senators for inviting the Irish Bookmakers Association, IBA, to participate in the committee's review of the scheme of the gambling regulation Bill. Our association represents approximately 750 of the 800 betting shops in Ireland today. Our members range from the large operators such as BoyleSports, Entain and Flutter to many of the independent bookmakers around the country with one or more shops. We are long-standing supporters of the regulation for our sector and we believe effective, practical regulation and enforcement is necessary to ensure the highest standards are adopted across all types of gambling operators.

Betting shops provide entertainment in a comfortable, licensed, adult-only environment and are an important source of revenue to the Exchequer and to the horse and greyhound industries. Betting shops and their head office locations employ more than 6,500 people. They do not permit entry to those under the age of 18 and have been practising a Think 21 policy for several years. I stress that applies to IBA members, not to the 50 operators which do not subscribe to the IBA codes. With our fully trained staff, our members operate a self-exclusion scheme in every betting shop along with providing information around safer gambling and the support services available for anybody affected by problem gambling or gambling addiction. They are also trained to intervene when a customer has been identified as displaying some signs of problem or addictive gambling.

With the absence of regulation for our sector, our association has been developing codes of practice in several key areas to try to ensure our members are operating in a socially responsible manner and affording customers a high level of protection and information. The IBA-led developments, that is, our trade association developments, include safer gambling training for staff, in-person and online; we funded a national problem gambling helpline and a network of counsellors in every county in Ireland; we started a Think 21 campaign, which prevents admission of those under the age of 18 to our member shops; we introduced a safer gambling code that went live in January of this year, which introduced safer practices around advertising, age verification, customer identification and payment methods; and we started a safer gambling week campaign four years ago, which is now an annual national awareness campaign that has proven to be very successful. Our members also contribute to the Gambling Awareness Trust, which is an independent charity that provides vetting, supervision and funding for operators that provide problem gambling or gambling addiction services in Ireland.

We believe the regulator should be fully resourced to ensure supervision and compliance can be consistent, effective and have safer gambling at its core. This will ensure a high level of customer protection and standards across all operators and provide a level playing field for operators in the sector within which to operate. The regulatory authority and its processes should also be flexible and proactive so that product development and consumer choice and protection are not hindered by the lack of relevant codes. Our members are dedicated to continuing to improve our safer gambling measures both now and in time under the guidance of a dedicated regulatory authority. I am thankful for the opportunity to present to the committee and I look forward to answering any questions members may have.