Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Gaming and Lotteries (Amendment) Bill will be debated again before being signed into law. On further analysis, and looking at the proposed amendments that are coming forward, the Labour Party believes that the Bill is flawed. If involved in any future Government, we would not allow this legislation to go any further; we would reverse what is proposed because we think it is very dangerous. We know about concerns regarding the social consequences in the context of bingo, which were outlined in the past 24 hours. On a very serious note, we do not have a regulator, casinos that are totally illegal - in some cases they do not even have planning permission - are operating less than a mile from this House and we have done nothing in respect of online gambling. We need a regulator. We are all aware of the addiction problems. I have spoken about this matter from the point of view of deep knowledge because I know people who have suffered very badly as a result of the House's lack of movement in respect of it. The Bill will be debated later. In that context, I ask whether we really need to allow high-stakes fixed-odds gaming machines to be prevalent across the country. Do we need to allow the stakes to be increased, via the legislation, by up to €5 and allow payouts of €500? Fianna Fáil really needs to think about this in the next few hours. When will we have proper legislation to bring in a proper regulator to deal with the various issues to which I refer and which are a scourge on our society?

See this speech in context