David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I note that many Deputies get what we are trying to do and that the vast majority of small operations, those under €5,000, will not be impacted at all. Incidentally, the Bill allows the Minister of the day to amend those figures. It will not need primary legislation, which was one of the issues with the 1956 Act. They got stuck in time and there was no way of changing but we have included a section in this Bill that will enable the Minister of the day to change some of these figures by regulation if necessary. It would have to come before the House to be approved but if there is a problem that has not been foreseen that can be done, although that is not possible in respect of the percentages. The figures of €5,000, €30,000 and the stake in prizes for the machine can be amended by statutory instrument with the approval of the House, if necessary.

I reiterate that under current law, commercial bingo is not allowed. If someone goes to the courts because he or she wants to run bingo or a lottery - and bingo has been identified in the courts as a lottery - he or she must do it for a charity. That is the law as it stands and most colleagues here agree with that. The big issue causing a problem here is the percentage the charity should get. I have suggested 25% and that 25% of the takings would go to run the thing, which is quite a large amount of money. While getting 25% of the takings is a lot of money; at present those concerned are taking up to 40%, which is huge, and then there would be 50% for the prizes. At the moment, prizes comprise approximately 60% although I know we have spoken about 75% and so on. There is a facility to top up.

There were a few questions about roll-overs. At the moment, and this will not change, if a prize goes over €5,000, one needs to get a licence from the court because one is running an event for which a licence from the court is clearly demanded and that is it. That is clear.

The lottery licence lasts for 12 months, as per the legislation. Deputy Naughten asked about that.

The national lottery was mentioned by Deputy Burton and that comes under the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. There is the National Lottery Act 2013 and we specifically did not bring that under this legislation as we wanted to keep it tight to these matters.

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