Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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I thank Dr. Fulton for her contribution. I have just one point. I am told there are about 45,000 people suffering from gambling addiction in Ireland. Ireland ranks third in terms of gambling losses per capita, after Australia and Singapore. Significantly, Ireland is first in terms of losses per capita from online gambling. This legislation will probably expose customers to an additional risk associated with playing online. While online betting is licensed, online betting and online gambling are still unregulated. The lack of regulation in Ireland means there is absolutely no obligation to offer self-exclusion or time-out facilities, or a facility for new customers to set maximum spending limits when opening an online account. Does much more need to be built into legislation to address the problems we are facing?