David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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On the final issue raised by Deputy Chambers, I have much sympathy for the points made in this regard. I will communicate them to the Minister for Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform, under whose remit the national lottery falls. I am slow to stand on his toes at this stage, but I will bring the Deputy's points to his attention and ask him to consider them in his overall view. The Deputy's proposal is not in line with the intention of the Bill, which is to do with gambling rather than unclaimed prizes in the national lottery, but I will raise the issue with the Minister.

The 2014-15 survey of gambling prevalence published in February of this year by the Department of Health indicates that the most prevalent forms of gambling engaged in were games associated with the national lottery. The operator has quite an aggressive ongoing advertising campaign and I have certain issues with some of the messages portrayed, such as winning islands and so on, which glamorise gambling. As I stated, turnover has increased every year. The betting on lottery numbers with other betting providers is not impacting on the turnover of the national lottery. In fact, it is going the other way.

I am taken by Deputy Sherlock's comment that the impact of these amendments would be to prevent people having a flutter on the numbers on a Saturday night or a Wednesday. The citizen who wants to have a small bet on the outcome would no longer be permitted to do so under the amendments. We would curtail that freedom and those placing such bets would move elsewhere. The amendments would not have the desired impact except in terms of taking away the freedom of our citizens to have a small flutter, to use Deputy Sherlock's words, on the outcome of the lotto. If we pass the amendments, those are the people who would be affected. It would not make any difference to the turnover of the national lottery. There is no guarantee that people who currently bet on the national lottery numbers would not decide to bet on something else instead. The amendments would not have the desired effect.