Mark Wall (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator McDowell for facilitating a change in speaking times. I welcome the Minister of State to the House for this very important discussion. According to some of the latest figures on gambling spending, Ireland is spending €9.8 billion a year, marking us out, as my colleague said, as the world's seventh biggest spenders on gambling per head, at almost €380 for every man, woman and child. That is the starting point of an industry that needs urgent regulation due to the large increases in those reporting gambling addiction problems and those who are suffering in silence, afraid to reach out for help or, more worryingly, think they can gamble their way out of their problems.

Over recent months, I have spoken to a large number of people who have developed gambling addiction problems and have taken time to speak to the dedicated people who, with very limited resources, are firefighting this almost invisible problem we, as legislators, need to tackle. Last Monday I introduced the Gambling (Prohibition of Advertising) Bill 2021 on behalf of the Labour Party to combat the takeover of ads on social and print media and TV screens by gambling companies. There can be no other description of what is happening. We are exposing children as young as six years to gambling ads as their parents home school them, and there is no legislation to prevent this exposure happening.

In a recent survey which we carried out, 80% of respondents reported seeing an increase in the number of gambling ads they see. More worrying was that almost 65% said they were more inclined to gamble after seeing these ads, a figure that will please gambling companies but which should set off serious alarm bells here and for the health system. From the College of Psychiatrists to gambling addiction support advocates such as Oisín McConville, Niall McNamee and Davy Glennon, there has been one consistent recent message: we must get rid of the amount of gambling ads in this country. I hope the Minister of State and the Government will support our Bill and that it can be enacted quickly. Even given the timeframes he has outlined, we cannot afford to give oxygen to these companies and their ads much longer.

There are a few issues I would like to raise with the Minister of State.The first one, which has been raised with me by a number of people, is the very serious issue surrounding so-called loot boxes in various video games. Recent research in the UK has found that loot boxes are structurally and psychologically akin to gambling. The report found that 93% of children play video games and upwards of 40% had opened these loot boxes. The issue, of course, is that the players are sometimes charged for the privilege of opening these boxes in the hope of gaining an advantage in the game, the problem being that parents are unaware of the cost and the amount being spent by their children, or older players spending beyond their limits. It is time to legislate in this country for loot boxes. We cannot afford to develop more gambling behavioural problems.

During our research, many people raised an issue in regard to the national lottery. Notwithstanding the community benefits outlined in the House this week, there is a very important issue that I have been asked by many people to bring to attention in this debate. Every Saturday evening, thousands of Irish families sit down for family time and to enjoy the Saturday evening movie, but their family time is interrupted each week by the national lottery. Why does our national broadcaster allow this to happen? It is time for this to change and for families to enjoy their family time together and to simply have the lottery on after the movie.

In regard to the forthcoming legislation referred to by the Minister of State, I want to make the following comments. At this late stage in the debate, some important facts stand out. First, at no stage in the decades we have been working on this Bill has anyone in either party sought the views of the general public. There have been official reviews and working groups and so on, but they have all been stacked with officials and civil servants, with no outside or lay representation and no public consultation. In other words, no one at any stage has ever paused to ask the public if what we really need right now is more gambling, or how it is affecting them. We have tried, through the Labour Party's recent survey, but this hidden problem needs public discussion, now more than ever.

Another and more disquieting fact is that officials have told us for decades that there is some flaw in the 1956 Act and that the private clubs already mentioned are exempt from it. However, they have never had this theory tested in a court of law, so there is no court judgment to back them up, and they stoutly refused over the years to tell us exactly what the flaw might be so we might set about fixing it. We have a situation where these private casinos are, at best, of dubious legality but they are nonetheless registered and monitored by the Department under EU anti-money laundering regulations. There are establishments throughout the State where gambling takes place in a zone of uncertain legality, waiting for this Government Bill to sort them out and to put a legislative stamp on their licence. This Bill cannot come quickly enough to regulate these clubs.

As I stated, I have spoken to many citizens of this country who have lost so much as a result of gambling, from loving partnerships to family homes to their jobs. I would like to finish with an email from a young lady who reached out to me just last night. It is always important to tell the human side of these stories, and it is always important to listen and to give reasons urgent legislation is needed in this country. The email began:

I started gambling following a visit to my local pub. I wanted to join in the fun and I placed my first bet. I was lucky at first and the initial wins reeled me in. Then came the losses. I remember the first time I spent an entire day in the bookmakers and walked out without a penny to my name. At that time, I told myself that I had gotten a bit carried away and so borrowed some money to get me through until the next payday. Of course, when the next payday arrived, I thought the smart choice would be to take my wages and double it, so I could pay back what I owed and still have my own money. That, however, did not happen and the following years of my life would become a vicious cycle of self-destructive behaviour that would eventually lead to my hospitalisation. I felt like I was dying and I wanted the doctors to tell me what was this terrible physical disease causing these issues, rather than truly admitting to myself that my suffering was a result of my addiction.

At this stage of my life, I had become a mother and although I felt my children would be better off without me and my destructive presence in their lives, I also knew that I did not want them to grow up without me because I love them. I knew I had to change so from my hospital bed I rang an addiction counsellor who had a high-profile case of his own gambling addiction. His lived experience meant he could genuinely identify with every experience, every feeling, every emotion I had. He worked with me for some months, helping me to get in the right frame of mind for recovery, and now I am happily in recovery and living my best life. I feel joy in every day and gratitude for the people in my life, all of whom cannot believe the person I am without gambling in my life. This peace I have experienced in recovery is so powerful and those who are suffering from gambling addiction need to know that there is a light at the end of the tunnel and they can reach it.

As a mother of two young children, I have neither the money nor the time to access a residential treatment programme, and this is true for a huge proportion of the population. There is also the fact I am a woman and a mother, which meant it was even more difficult for me to access the help due to the stigma and shame that our society puts on those suffering with gambling addiction.

This is just one young woman who now wants to use her experience to help others out. That type of help is what is urgently needed here.

We need to enact the Gambling (Prohibition of Advertising) Bill 2021. We have to stop the bombardment of gambling advertisements. It is beyond time that we were all allowed to enjoy sport once again without this forced normalisation of sport and gambling. We must introduce a regulator through the Bill the Minister of State is proposing. The time for talking has long passed. I welcome his commitment to introducing this Bill and we look forward to it coming before us.