Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Mr. Algeo does not know how much PLI spends on player welfare. Even the greyhound industry knows how much it spends, although whether that spend is enough is another question. In a highly addictive scenario, Mr. Algeo does not know what PLI does for people's welfare, to prevent gambling addiction and to ensure that those who have self-excluded are protected. Mr. Algeo knows that PLI has €122 million to spend on marketing - that amount is nearly 100% - yet he does not know how much it spends on player welfare. This signifies that PLI could not care less about the 48 people we know of who are at serious risk. Bearing in mind that, at our earlier session, we discussed how e-gaming was an illegal activity in Ireland, in that it is unregulated, PLI is lucky that it has the national lottery legislation. The people who are accessing the national lottery site are not so lucky, though, as it appears that PLI could not care less. It has no information about player welfare or what it does. It has five steps that it follows, but it does not know how much player welfare costs. If it were me, I would be very interested in knowing how much it cost and whether it was working.