Results 1-20 of 55 for lottery speaker:Michael McDowell

Seanad: Gambling Regulation Bill 2022: Committee Stage (25 Sep 2024)

Michael McDowell: ...amendments are designed to preserve the existing law in Ireland. It is a law that is being deliberately breached day in, day out by powerful casino operators in this city. Under the Gaming and Lotteries Act 1956, one cannot run an amusement hall unless a local authority has decided that either in the whole of or in part of its area there should be a regime in place that permits the...

Seanad: Gambling Regulation Bill 2022: Committee Stage (25 Sep 2024)

Michael McDowell: ...welcome what Senator Paul Gavan has said in particular as well as what other members have said in respect of the principle of this legislation and the amendments I have tabled. The Gaming and Lotteries Act 1956 provided that a one-arm-bandit-casino-type operation could not be run unless the local authority in the area said so. It gave local authorities the right to say that, in respect...

Seanad: Gambling Regulation Bill 2022: Committee Stage (25 Sep 2024)

Michael McDowell: It has not. I would put a lot of money on that it has not. Therefore, under Part III of the Gaming and Lotteries Act 1956, whatever happens in any part of Wexford, despite the abolition of the urban district councils and the like, is unlawful. What can a local authority do? The only people who can act in this matter are members of An Garda Síochána. They can prosecute. They...

Seanad: Gambling Regulation Bill 2022: Committee Stage (25 Sep 2024)

Michael McDowell: ...to why these amendments should not be accepted, which are that local authorities proved incapable of operating a system. Local authorities were never given the function of operating the Gaming and Lotteries Act 1956. They were never given that function. It was members of the Garda who were to police the Act. They were given-----

Seanad: Gambling Regulation Bill 2022: Committee Stage (25 Sep 2024)

Michael McDowell: I accept that I strayed. Local authorities were never given the function under the Gaming and Lotteries Act of policing this. They could not send down some lad from the council head office to say there is something wrong here. The only people who were given a function to police this were the police. To lay blame at the feet of local authorities is wrong. The only function local...

Seanad: Gambling Regulation Bill 2022: Committee Stage (25 Sep 2024)

Michael McDowell: I support the two amendments that were discussed. They are sensible. Nowadays there are very elaborate activities whereby a person is asked to answer some stupid question, which then turns into a lottery. RTÉ does a lot of it. That must be dealt with. It is a lottery, and gaining access to a lottery by answering a moronic question correctly does not change it from being a lottery....

Seanad: Protection of Children (Online Age Verification) Bill 2024: Second Stage (11 Jul 2024)

Michael McDowell: ...Dáil elections. Adolescence means becoming an adult. We have fixed an age of majority at the age of 18. People argued that somehow it would be a good idea if people who we do not permit to smoke, buy a lottery ticket, enter the contract of marriage, go into licensed premises except in certain circumstances are nonetheless mature enough to make decisions about national political...

Seanad: Electoral (Amendment) (Voting at 16) Bill 2021: Second Stage (7 Nov 2023)

Michael McDowell: ...whether we are guilty of double standards when it comes to the age of majority. If someone is incapable of going into a pub or off-licence and buying a can of beer or of going into a shop and buying a lottery ticket because he or she is regarded by law as being vulnerable and someone who should not be permitted to do that, why do we say that his or her judgment as to who should be on the...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (13 Jul 2023)

Michael McDowell: ...local authority members can still do is decide whether, in their functional area, people can run amusement arcades with slot machines and the like. It is a power they have under the Gaming and Lotteries Act 1956. Dublin City Council revoked any such permission 30-something years ago, yet in the city centre there is a vast amount of these places operating illegally and nobody is doing...

Seanad: Judicial Appointments Commission Bill 2022: Committee Stage (Resumed) (25 Jan 2023)

Michael McDowell: ...Bills. Why was it changed to create a situation where the majority of persons in the Supreme Court shall now become ineligible for appointment? I think it is an insult to them that, by statute, a lottery is effectively held among the members of the Supreme Court and good, sensible, reasonable candidates for the position of Chief Justice are rendered ineligible by a decision of the...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (7 Jul 2022)

Michael McDowell: ..., as does the mica remediation legislation. On the other hand, business which will not reach Report and Final Stages next week and could be scheduled for the autumn, such as Senator Ward's National Lottery (Amendment) Bill and a Green Party Bill about animal welfare, which is not urgent, is now being slotted in to take up time which could be allocated to the other legislation proposed to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Gambling Regulation Bill: Discussion (Resumed) (22 Mar 2022)

Michael McDowell: .... Whereas this Bill brings in possibilities of control, the general scheme seems to be that gambling is fine. I notice that head 69 proposes that anybody providing any goods or services can operate a lottery to encourage its purchase, with a limit of €5,000 in prizes. In other words, if you are selling widgets, biscuits or anything like that, you can, without a licence so long as...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: General Scheme of the Gambling Regulation Bill: Discussion (8 Mar 2022)

Michael McDowell: ...extensive advertising? It cannot be prevented from appearing on the side of football pitches during Premier League matches and the like. Is it necessary to normalise gambling through bingo and lotteries to the extent that is happening in the UK?

Seanad: Criminal Justice (Enforcement Powers) (Covid-19) Bill 2020: Committee and Remaining Stages (10 Sep 2020)

Michael McDowell: ...subject of this debate today. There has been a scandalous failure on the part of the prosecuting authorities to implement the law relating to gambling in this city of Dublin. Under the Gaming and Lotteries Act 1956, no gambling type of casino or amusement arcade may operate without a resolution having been passed to enable it to happen. Nevertheless, surrounding us in this city and...

Seanad: Gaming and Lotteries (Amendment) Bill 2019: [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil] Report and Final Stages (11 Dec 2019)

Michael McDowell: ...used for promoting "gaming by means of a gaming machine." If this is the case, this legislation has nothing to do with making lawful that which is manifestly unlawful. Dublin City Council, under the Gaming and Lotteries Act 1956, has not adopted a resolution to permit gaming by machines in this city. Vast sums are being made by the owners of arcades right under our noses. Automated...

Seanad: Gaming and Lotteries (Amendment) Bill 2019: [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil] Report and Final Stages (11 Dec 2019)

Michael McDowell: ...is not here to determine what is lawful or unlawful but he and the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Flanagan, are the two political heads of the Department under whose aegis gaming and lotteries are controlled in Irish law. In both the cities of Cork and Dublin, the laws are being flagrantly broken. If it is the case that the Garda Commissioner no longer enforces the law, it is...

Seanad: Gaming and Lotteries (Amendment) Bill 2019: [Seanad Bill amended by the Dáil] Report and Final Stages (11 Dec 2019)

Michael McDowell: ...because I am not getting clarity from the Minister of State as to whether any of these machines can be operated in an amusement hall unless the local authority has adopted a resolution under the Gaming and Lotteries Act 1956. I must have some clarity on this. Either what is happening in O'Connell Street and on the quays and on the road out to the airport is permissible on foot of these...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (5 Dec 2019)

Michael McDowell: ...arrange for the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Flanagan, to discuss the presence of gambling casinos and their operation in Dublin, which is in flagrant contravention of the gaming and lotteries legislation. As I understand it, there will be no relevant amendment and all of those operations are illegal but for some reason they have now been in operation for ten years and nobody...

Seanad: An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (3 Dec 2019)

Michael McDowell: ...about changes made by the Department of Justice and Equality to the circumstances and way in which bingo is operated in various centres in the country. All of that is dealt under the Gaming and Lotteries Act, as amended. The simple fact is that there is a far more serious issue that is not being addressed at all. I refer to the flagrant breaches of the law being perpetrated daily on our...