Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will finish on this. As I said, I understand the predicament and I would argue that maybe if we were on an earlier Stage, the Minister of State may have taken this on board. It is a very serious issue. We are at a very late stage of this legislation and I know the Minister of State will not take the amendment on board but I am raising it because I know others will be looking in and the authority will have powers under regulations.

It is crucial that this issue, which is a massive loophole in this legislation, is closed down by the authority. If it is not being done by the primary legislation, as it should be done in a very simple way, it must be closed down by the authority because, otherwise, there will be an unlimited amount of this. It is already happening. This is how these companies do it. How does a company get new subscribers? It is through appealing gambling activity, but it is also through free entries, free this, free that and all the rest - competitions where you do not have to pay anything. Why? It is because when they get the subscribers, they can target them over and over again.

I urge the Minister of State to consider this in the implementation of this legislation. When does he expect to give effect to the legislation? I ask him to speak to the authority and raise concerns that have been raised on the floor in respect of practices that may emerge from the clamping down on many other activities as a result of this legislation.

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