Lynn Boylan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We are all aware of the difficulties that are faced by people who are addicted to gambling. We all know that every day gambling can and has ruined lives. Gambling charities have called for stronger regulation and legislation for years. In 2017, I held a high-level conference in Dublin that included international academics to speak on the issue of how gambling and gambling advertisements have an impact on children.

The Government has promised to bring legislation to include imposing spending limits on customers, having a stronger age verification for mobile gambling, curbing advertising, and especially a ban on advertisements aimed at returning customers to gambling. We were promised this legislation by the end of quarter 3. Unless the Government plans to publish the legislation tomorrow morning, it looks like it will have reneged on its commitment.

We need a strong and flexible regulator. A commitment to provide a regulator is contained in the programme for Government and was supposed to be delivered at the end of this year. At the rate the Government is going, I will not hold my breath for that either.

Realistically, and I do not mean any disrespect to the people who brought forward this Bill, if we had a proper regulator there would be no reason for this legislation. What we need is a proper gambling control Bill with a proper regulator. Fine Gael has promised legislation to tackle gambling issues as far back as 2011. The heads of a gambling Bill were published in 2013 and more legislation was developed by Fianna Fáil in 2018. Considering a gambling control Bill has essentially been written already, it should not have taken this long for us to discuss that legislation. Yet here we are, over a year into the lifetime of the Government, and we are left waiting.

Given all of the can-kicking that has happened, it is disappointing that this legislation before us has been framed as a support for problem gambling. I say that because the Bill has been framed in a way that will not address the issues that we have been told it will address because, using the Paddy Power website, one can still place bets on the lottos in the UK, Spain and New York. From my reading of the Bill, it seems to just cover the Irish national lottery. If there is such concern that people will fall victim to problem gambling or that money will be diverted away from the social dividend of the national lottery through betting and gambling shops, why does the legislation not cover all lottos? I agree that there will be people who will not have €6 to play the lotto. My dad is one of the people who likes to place a small bet on the lotto in a bookies shop. He will not be happy with this legislation but he probably will simply move to doing the UK lottery instead.

No charity or NGO that I have ever engaged with that worked on gambling has called for more to be done to tackle this particular issue and I have met them at length. In fact, they have brought up the issue of the national lottery advertisements, as has been said here.The Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland suggests that gambling advertisements should not be giving out a message of life improvement. The national lottery adverts clearly do that, whether with the advertisement featuring the big garden and the woman bringing in the fellow to cut the grass or the one featuring the slide. They are well-made and funny advertisements but they are clearly showing you that if you win the lotto, your life is going to significantly improve.

Another issue around the national lottery that was brought to my attention by those who work at the coalface of problem gambling is the fact that it interrupts the family film at the weekend. Family time is interrupted by the drawing of the national lottery numbers.

People are trying to do their best. I would much rather we were debating actual legislation that would put in place a gambling regulator or legislation relating to advertising that targets vulnerable people. I know that my colleague, Deputy Gould, has brought significant legislation that would ban the use of credit cards, which would protect vulnerable people. As I said, we will support the Bill moving to Committee Stage. However, we feel that, of all the issues with gambling, this is the one that has not been brought to my attention by any of the organisations working with those affected with gambling addiction and problem gambling.