Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome this Bill. Anyone who has dealt with those suffering from a gambling addiction, which is fundamentally a disease, knows the utter destruction it can cause. I know of people who have been caught in this web, and the effect it has on family homes, farms and family life is devastating. Gambling needs to be controlled.

An option paper was prepared as far back as 2010. A Bill appeared in 2013, and we are now in 2018 and are no further forward. Unfortunately, during that time the sophistication of the gambling companies has increased dramatically. The introduction of online gambling means that people can gamble in private. When the only option was to gamble in public by going into a bookie shop it involved the physical act of purposely going to do it. Now it can be done in the privacy of one's own home.

I had a friend who regularly said that when one goes into a bookie shop he or she should look at the floor. I am not someone who ever frequented bookie shops so I did not understand what he meant. He was referring to all the little tickets thrown away in disgust by people who had lost money but continued to gamble and lose more.

I do not believe that commentators on sports events continually speaking about the odds for a goal within five minutes or for winning by a particular score is a good idea. It normalises gambling, which is hugely destructive and does very little good for anybody.

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