Shane Cassells (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his work on the Bill. I am very happy that this is one of the most significant items of legislation to come before either House. It is in line with the Online Safety and Media Regulation Act 2022 - also delivered during the term of this Oireachtas - which was designed to regulate those other cowboys of the Wild West, namely the social media companies. Indeed, there is a synergy between the social media presence and the pervasiveness of advertising now. The work the Minister of State is doing is aimed at trying to regulate that and the advertising space that is available to them.

I am very glad that the Bill has stayed alive. There was a massive, co-ordinated campaign by the bookmakers against the Minister of State's efforts to protect susceptible people from the evils of gambling. The bookmakers shamelessly got people within the horse racing industry to act on their behalf in recent months and lobby politicians.These multibillion euro operators who profit on people's addiction to their products have HRI, owners, trainers and jockeys all saying this will kill the industry. How will it kill the industry? They are not the only ones. Many of the tabloid newspapers have shamelessly run front-page stories scaremongering and forecasting the death of the Irish horseracing industry. They claim that the bookmakers' advertising money will dry up and that racing television will collapse, which in turn will close racetracks. It is nonsense. Even if it were true, why has HRI become so in hock to the TV companies and to bookmakers' money? Why is not more interested in getting people through the turnstiles and onto the tracks? This Bill and those who advocate for it are not going after people's desire to gamble, participate in or enjoy gambling or enjoy horseracing. It does not impact on horseracing one iota. More to the point, the bookmakers are some of the main advertisers in some of the racing supplements of these papers in a diminishing advertising market. Unbiased media - I think not.

I mention all this and think of the gambling aware advertisement that was run on the big screen at half-time in the Leinster final last Sunday. I looked up and saw the figures of GAA stars Oisín McConville, Conn Kilpatrick from Tyrone and Richie Power from Kilkenny. Ask any of those sportsmen who lost everything about the impact. The TG4 programme "Laochra Gael" documented Richie Power's tribulations with the gambling industry that almost cost him everything in his life.

Why are the bookmakers so worried about not being allowed to advertise? They make enough money - billions - as it is. It is because advertising works, not only in recruiting new young customers to their wares, but also in breaking the resolve of addicts who are in treatment for their addiction and getting them hooked on gambling again. My young sons are sports addicts. They watch Sky Sports News for the football news and scores. They cannot turn on that channel without seeing advertisements for bookmakers before and after every single bulletin, 24-7. These bookmakers' products are not for horseracing. We should say this because many in the horseracing industry are getting upset about this. It is not going after horseracing at all. The advertisements the Minister of State is trying to regulate are not for horseracing. What are they for? They are for online casinos, online roulette wheels and online poker which have nothing to do with the sport of horseracing. They are all to do with online casinos and creating addicts to these new products that have been created by some of the finest minds to impact on susceptible minds. That where the game is at. It is not horseracing or soccer. It is virtual casinos and virtual racing. It is the legal virtual cocaine.

Speaking of the sport of soccer, I support the call of the Football Association of Ireland to increase the betting tax by 1% and for the money raised to be used for sport infrastructure in Ireland to offset some of the evils from this. Horseracing is not the only game in town and should not be the only industry that gains from the betting tax. I support that call and call on the Minister, Deputy McGrath, to do the same.

There were plenty of speakers here and in the Dáil whose speeches the bookmakers would have been delighted with. I would say they are being added to the bookmakers' list of brand ambassadors, along with all the horse trainers and former jockeys they have. I wonder if any of them have sat in a gambling addiction meeting with people who have lost everything and I mean everything. As has been said, 100,000 people in this country are problem gamblers and that is an underestimate. For every gambler, six more people are impacted. That is 600,000 people who are impacted by problem gambling in this country.

Many people spoke in this debate and during the debate in the Dáil about unintended consequences. I welcome that the Minister of State said he has listened to those concerns and that he will bring forward amendments in respect of charities and sporting organisations. It is funny that a lot of them did not hear that last week, according to some of the phone calls that were going around. Critically, this Bill does not impact on people's enjoyment of gambling. Thousands do so responsibly, including myself. I am the worst gambler in Ireland. I love going to Navan and Fairyhouse racecourses. I have met the Cathaoirleach in Fairyhouse many times when I was enjoying the sport of horseracing in my county. The Bill does not impact on that one iota. However, remember this impact. Many can enjoy it responsibly, but many hundreds of thousands cannot and because we have left an industry completely unregulated, the pervasiveness of that advertising is creating a whole new generation of people who are addicted to the products being devised to keep young people hooked.Anyone who would be against that should take a long, hard look at themselves in the mirror. I commend the Minister of State on his work in this respect.