James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate Deputy Bacik. I have had the pleasure of dealing with her in here over the past year on justice issues. She is a huge loss to the Seanad given her forensic analysis of justice legislation and ability to improve the legislation we have introduced. I look forward to engaging with her in the Dáil.

I thank Senator Wall for raising this important issue. He has made this a hugely important matter for himself since he came into the Seanad and is committed to seeking gambling reform.

The programme for Government gives a clear commitment to comprehensively reform the licensing and regulation of gambling activities. That reform will establish a gambling regulator focused on public safety and well-being. It is important to understand that this regulator will not only regulate the industry in general terms, but will have a public health remit as the primary focus in every decision or recommendation he or she makes.

When I was appointed last September, I had listened to proposals and promises around reforming gambling for 20 years. As far back as 2007, the appointment of a gambling regulator was an issue in the general election. It has not happened. I set out last September clear timelines and milestones to get this done comprehensively and we are on schedule for that. We will publish a new scheme in September and have a CEO-designate, in effect a regulator, appointed by the end of this year. There is a clear path towards the regulator being operational in early 2023.

The legislation will empower the independent gambling regulator to develop regulations, codes of conduct and codes of practice on various issues relating to gambling, including advertising. I expect a particular focus from the regulator on appropriate standards for advertising and customer protection by gambling operators. These codes will be part of a range of conditions that the operators will need to adhere to and to enjoy the benefits of.The regulator will have the power to impose fines where codes of conducts and regulations are not being complied with and to remove a licence or block the various sites if in breach of the regulations and the guidelines. When appointed, the regular will be powerful and will be backed up with supports of comprehensive legislation.

As the Senator will be aware, under existing law, licensed gambling operators are entitled to advertise their products and currently advertising does not come with the remit of the Department of Justice but the intention is to bring gambling advertising under the remit of the Department and the regulator. Currently, it comes under the remit of the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications. The general regulation of advertising in the media is, as I say, currently a matter for the Advertising Standards Authority of Ireland and the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland under the remit of the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications. There are no specific statutory requirements in regard to gambling activities, but all advertisements must meet the basic requirements of being truthful and to not mislead any potential customer. How the new gambling operator might operate specific advertising regulations for the gambling industry will be informed by the report of the interdepartmental working group on the future of licensing and regulation of gambling approved by the Government on 20 March 2019. The report noted that there are various issues involved in developing an effective approach to advertising on gambling products. There are challenges around banning advertising on gambling. A ban is certainly on the table but given much of the horse racing and other sports televised during daytime or at the weekend comes from other countries, finding a way to effectively ban advertising will be challenging. I am conscious of what the UK is doing in terms of a review, including in regard to sports sponsorship.

In developing the new legislation, my objective is to provide enhanced consumer protection for players and to limit harmful effects on young people and those susceptible to addiction. We must ensure that gambling will be safe, fair and crime-free. The legislation will be comprehensive. The regulator will be powerful and advertising will be a central plank in all of that work.