Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The purpose of this amendment is to include those organisations which carry on gambling and betting online, by telephone, through television sets, via radio and by way of other types of electronic betting. I have received legal advice that the Bill as drafted would make promotion of all gambling without a gaming permit illegal. As the definition of gaming in the Bill is not limited in its scope and clearly extends to any gaming activity, whether land based or via private members' clubs, retail bookmakers or online, the effect would be to make online gambling and retail bookmakers illegal. Will the Minister comment on that legal advice?

As I said, the amendment seeks to bring online operators under the remit of the regulations that will apply to terrestrial betting. The Minister accepts that the online system now accounts for a much larger share of betting in this country than was the case in the past. Indeed, recent studies show that housewives and househusbands who are at home all day are spending fortunes online.One cannot switch on a TV set after 10 p.m. or 11 p.m. without being enticed to get involved in bingo, roulette and all sorts of gambling. In 2015, when I first spoke on gambling in this House in the previous Seanad, I made the point that it had gotten out of control online. There was no control mechanism. I introduced amendments providing for time limits so that a user could not be online for longer than, say, an hour. I sought Government health warnings on betting slips and other measures. Every Senator in this House spoke in favour of the amendments I brought forward but they were voted down. I am still unable to rationalise that.

I am trying to make sure that everybody involved in gaming or gambling is brought under the same umbrella and are all subject to the control of the Minister of the day or of the legislation. The amendment seeks to include the following:

Betting Act 1931;

‘remote gaming’ means gaming in which persons participate by the use of remote communication;

‘remote gaming machine’ means any instrument of gaming which is facilitated by remote communication;

‘remote communication’ means communication using—(a) internet,

(b) telephone,

(c) television,

(d) radio, or

(e) any other kind of electronic or other technology for facilitating communication;

The Minister of State and I have discussed this many times and I know he is deeply concerned about it. With the rate at which technology is moving forward, God knows where we will be in five years. We hear the horror stories of people waking up in the middle of the night, taking a smartphone out from under the pillow and using it for gaming and gambling. That is what we are trying to address here. I will leave it at that and see what the Minister of State's response is.