Comment: ‘We need to turn the odds in favour of the people, not the bookies and tech giants’
A website for gambling addicts who are seeking help says traffic has increased on the site by 46% during the pandemic.
Three quarters of 12-17 year olds in this country admit to gambling.
A Gambling Regulator is expected to be appointed later this year while a bill dealing with Online safety is currently before the Oireachtas.
Here Meath West Senator Shane Cassells, who is a member of this committee, explains how online gambling is ruining lives and needs to be tackled.
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Ever had a punt on a horse? Course you have.
Even if it’s only a €2 thrown into the workplace sweepstakes for the national you will find that you’ve had a punt at least once in your life.
For most it is something that is a bit of fun during a day at the races and nothing more.
Alas for others it is a destructive disease.
The growing problem of gambling addiction was brought home to me again this week as we worked on the scrutiny of the Online Safety & Media Regulation Bill currently before members of the Media Committee.
Experts from the world of children affairs were before the committee this week as they set out the harm being done to kids online.
Professor Conor O’Mahony, who is the Government’s Special Rapporteur on Child Protection, examined what actually defines harmful content and he touched on how this should include financial harm.
Gambling online is identified as a risk of harm for children in the Council of Europe Guidelines.
Professor O’Mahony in his submission outlined how the College of Psychiatrists of Ireland have stated that children have been “shown to be particularly vulnerable to gambling advertising” and that “about three quarters of teenagers between years 12 and 17 gamble annually, higher than any other age group”.
Hold that thought for a moment.
As I’m listening to his testimony I started to think about an article which appeared on my Facebook timeline only days previously from former Dublin GAA star Diarmuid Connolly.
As a big GAA fan and former sports journo I naturally clicked on the article to read what he was saying about the U-20 championships.
The article though should have carried a product placement health warning as we were helpfully informed that Diarmuid was sharing his thoughts on this underage championship as a Brand Ambassador for Boyle Sports Bookmakers.
Brand Ambassador? Like what does that even mean?
Anyway it gets worse.
For what really caught my eye was the fact that the word Boyle Sports was highlighted in a blue colour and when I pressed on it with my thumb I was instantaneously transported to a page giving me the live betting odds for that weekend’s GAA games.
So in a country where three quarters of 12 to 17-year-olds are gambling you now have GAA stars acting as ambassadors for these guys and then providing their view in articles about underage football which carry deceptively placed links in the text bringing you to a page where you can get a live bet on.
Online platforms are just a Godsend to the bookies. The Covid pandemic was an equal stroke of good luck for them.
The gambling firms don’t want bookies shops. Why would they? High rents, rates and staff wages are all a drain on their profits.
Instead they can offer you the whole thing online via your phone.
The temporary closure of bookie shops this year during lockdown drove literally thousands more online as it coincided with the big festivals of the year at Cheltenham and Aintree.
I enjoy an odd bet as much as any person and so in order to place a bet on a few races during Cheltenham I opened an account with one of these firms.
It was an eye opener.
I did not need a screed of ID to open the account but come the end of the week when I wanted to retrieve the €100 credit that I’d amassed I had to produce my passport.
So I could have gambled my house away to my heart’s content with no questions asked but look for a tenner back off these guys and they want photo ID.
Added to that was the fact that since opening the account my Facebook timeline was now completely polluted with ads for this gambling firm offering me special bets for everything from racing to football.
I recounted this story in the Seanad the following week when we were discussing gambling reform and funny enough a few days later I found my online account had been shut down by the same company.
The gambling industry in this country is worth billions and they have found the perfect vehicle to get their product direct to their consumers via social media.
Both parties have shown scant disregard that this has resulted in massive amounts of children now becoming addicted to the world of online gambling.
Regulation in both areas is now coming as we will appoint a gambling regulator this year and the Online Safety & Media Regulation Bill tackling the unregulated world of social media.
Terrible damage has been done but it is our job as legislators to now turn the odds in the favour of the people as opposed to the bookies and tech giants.