Shane Cassells (Meath West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

To cut to the chase, it is an accepted truth that gambling is a disease for many and that it has infiltrated and destroyed many lives in this country. No attempt is being made tonight to ban gambling but an attempt is being made to try, in some small way, to halt the terrible damage being done to the lives of people who are addicted to this scourge and to end the relentless march that bookies and the wider industry are on to further tighten their grip on the consciousness of society. The key here is how the gambling industry is gaining a tighter grip on people's minds through advertising and social media platforms. People need to stand up to those practices.

Last year, at a special night at my GAA club, Navan O'Mahonys, the executive invited GAA legend Oisín McConville to talk about his own battles with gambling addiction. As a GAA man, it was desperately sad to listen to one of our great stars talk about how he went to London for an operation and, after coming out, spent the evening in the bookies. He gambled every penny he had and could not even afford the taxi back to the airport. He had to run to Heathrow and aggravated the injury for which he had been treated. That is the stranglehold gambling can have over a person. The question is then whether it is a lost battle. I asked a good friend of mine who is an addict and who may never break the addiction - but who keeps fighting it - whether the battle is lost. He said that I should not let the industry get a further stranglehold on people. I am looking at the path they want to take. Let us not confuse what is being said this evening as an attempt to thwart the fun of people who go to the races for a for a day with their friends. I attended the Sligo races last Sunday. I enjoyed a great day at that scenic racecourse and, courtesy of Noel Meade, my local trainer, I backed a winner. There is a big difference between that and a bookie who is trying to get one to lump money on Swansea - via one's mobile phone - after Southampton have scored, with the advance of in-match betting and the odds flashing up on the screens around the ground. I would encourage anyone to read the feature on the Paddy Power CEO, Peter Jackson, in the Sunday Independentlast weekend to see where these guys want to go to infiltrate society even further.

One of the great things in Irish sport is the cheer that goes up from the crowd at 1.30 p.m. on the Tuesday of Cheltenham Festival week but if one walks around the bookie shops in Navan or any other provincial town at 5.30 p.m. on the same day, it is easy to see the impact of the sport of kings on so many poor souls. The flashing television advertisements of Ruby Walsh and Paddy Power will not pay the food bills of the lads who handed all their money for the day across the counter.

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