Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 17 April 2019

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality

Regulation of Gambling Sector: Discussion

Photo of Donnchadh Ó LaoghaireDonnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
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I have two more questions. The first is on a related area. It is about restricting access, particularly online. I touched on this in my previous contribution. There are policies but they can be weak. There are ways around them. Should there be a uniform sort of exclusion that carries right across several companies? I am not sure how that would be managed technologically. If people have been identified as having difficult patterns, should there be a way in which they could either exclude themselves or be excluded from the various companies right across the board? Can that be explored? What is Dr. Fulton's view based on her experience of the major bookmakers?

I have doubts as to whether these companies are using all of the information available to them. One can contrast how bookmakers deal with people who lose vast sums online or in person and how they deal with people who have placed four or five bets, made a small sum of money, made some profit, and beat the odds, many examples of which can be found online. I do not mean to cast any of these people as folk heroes or as virtuous, but there is a contrast between the lengths to which some bookmakers will go to ensure their profits are preserved and to reduce the ability of people to make money and the lack of restriction on people who lose vast sums of money and display very problematic patterns and behaviours. Does Dr. Fulton believe that the gambling companies are using all of the information at their disposal to ensure that people do not develop problematic behaviours?