Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit agus tréaslaím le mo chomhghleacaithe anseo as an gceist tábhachtach seo a chur os ár gcomhair anocht.

I read recently that apparently the earliest surviving evidence of gambling in human society dates from 2300 BC when wooden boards were used in China for rudimentary games of chance. There is no reason to suspect there has not been gambling on this island for the same length of time. As everybody knows, Ireland has a history of funding projects from the proceeds of gambling. The sale of the national lottery was trumpeted as providing hundreds of millions of euro towards the building of the national children's hospital. That is ironic when one considers that the Government seems to have acted like a reckless gambler in planning the project, given the way the projected costs have spiralled out of control. Perhaps the same negligence can be seen in the political establishment's inadequate response to date to the problem of gambling. While the national lottery does fund good work - we hear constantly about how it funds community projects throughout the State - one must wonder about the hoopla and the amount of advertising carried on the public television service on the lottery that encourages people to gamble more and more, by putting before them aunrealisable goals, albeit sometimes in very humorous ways. As I said, there is a tradition. The Great Wall of China was part funded through a form of lottery, as were the great Ivy League colleges of Harvard and Yale. The things are fite fuaite - progress, on the one hand, but vulnerability, on the other. Gambling is not inherently bad or wrong, but we have to confront the fact that it is doing great harm to some people's lives. As policy makers, we have to ask how this problem can best be managed and regulated to ensure it will not damage or impinge on the dignity of citizens or their families.

Generally, in our minds we associate gambling with being a problem for men only, but research carried out by the Rutland Centre and other groups shows that increasingly it is becoming a problem among women also, although it is still far more prevalent among men. The most difficult feature of the problem is the impact it has on families. We have seen and heard recently the very honest testimony of Davy Glennon, the Galway hurling star, who has spoken about how he became a compulsive liar and thief. We heard about the sacrifices his family had to make to repay the debts that had flowed from his gambling problem.

While it is not a great personal interest of mine, I have cause to see a lot of advertisements for gambling since I have a close family relative who loves the bloodstock industry and has a great passion for the turf, although she is not a gambler. I have often arrived home to be shushed as she shuttled between the television in one room on which racing was being shown on RTÉ and, between races, to watch the racing at Kempton Park on another in another room. It always strikes me how manipulative the advertisements are for the various betting companies. Making any association with glamour or manliness in advertisements for strong liquor has become taboo, but that is not the case with the advertisements of betting companies. Something has to be done about this. I say this in the knowledge that people involved in the bloodstock industry who do so much for the gaiety of the nation will say that, to some degree, they are dependent on the sponsorship moneys of the companies. I suggest, however, that, on balance, the issue has to be tackled.

As a country, we must ask if we are glorifying gambling to an unhealthy extent and if the State sanctions or encourages many forms of gambling in unhealthy ways. I referred to the national lottery. We have to think, for example, about the EuroMillions lottery and all of the coverage given to the recent win. It seems there is doublethink on gambling which perhaps often mirrors the doublethink on the problem of the excess consumption of alcohol, on the one hand, and the inability of the State, on the other, to really grasp the nettle in dealing with that issue. There is almost a cult surrounding the lotto and the EuroMillions lottery and the way they whip us up into a frenzy, in which the media play its part. I am not aware of any research to determine the amount the average person might spend on the lottery each week, but I am sure there are some who participate to an unhealthy degree.

As a person who comes from rural Ireland, I have noticed that in towns where very little else seems to be happening the presence and prevalence of bookies' and betting shops. What does that say about people's dependency? It is a tragedy that towns that are down at heel in many ways still seem to have thriving betting shops.

I was shocked by the recent comments of a former Fine Gael Minister, Ivan Yates, when he told a Sunday newspaper that he paid for his car, which is worth up to €40,000, through huge high stake bets. I am not picking on Mr. Yates; he is a fine communicator and so on, but in the interview he said: "Once every 10 years I have to raise a humongous amount of money, up to about €40,000 to pay for a car ... so I line up a bet, no word of a lie." At one level, it is entertaining to hear it, but in terms of the public good I would probably have preferred not to have heard it. One could argue that it is incredibly irresponsible-----