Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 9 October 2013

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality

Heads of the Gambling Control Bill 2013: Discussion

12:15 pm

Photo of Anne FerrisAnne Ferris (Wicklow, Labour)
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-----the Department of Justice and Equality and the Garda Síochána had a better regulatory system than the Revenue Commissioners. God bless them, but people from the Office of the Revenue Commissioners could go in and be told that a certain machine was not a gaming machine and they might not have known the difference. I probably would not know the difference. That is wrong. I know Mr. McCarthy would like to see these machines banned from a number of places, such as bookmakers, public houses, hotels and so on. Mr. Roche reckoned that there were about 7,000 unlicensed machines, while somebody else said last week that the number was about 20,000. If it is only 7,000, we are losing revenue of €3.5 million per year. Let us think of what the Minister for Finance could do in the budget next week with that kind of money on a yearly basis. If it is 20,000 machines, it beggars belief that it is going on like this. That is why we have to move fast.

I wish to get back to Mr. McCarthy-----