Far-reaching legislation to strictly regulate gambling in Ireland for the first time will become law before this Government’s term has come to an end, the Minister of State at the Department of Justice has said.
James Browne, who has responsibility for gambling, confirmed the Gambling Regulation Bill will complete its passage through the Oireachtas by mid-October.
The Wexford TD has been working on the Bill since being appointed four years ago and has refused to water down any of its provisions on advertising, stake limits for slot machines or criminalising failure to protect children from gambling. This, he said, is despite what he described as “endless” lobbying from the racing, betting and gambling industries.
The Bill will establish a regulator to oversee gambling and gaming activity, will prohibit related advertising from 5.30am to 9pm and will impose prison sentences of up to eight years on those who fail to protect children from gambling.
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Inducements such as “free bets”, VIP treatment, free credit and free hospitality are all banned under the Bill. Adults will have to actively opt in to receive betting advertisements online and there will be a ban on social media advertising.
In all, there have been 61 separate listings of lobbying activity to politicians, officials and Ministers during the course of this year. About half of those were made by charities and sports clubs concerned that the provisions would not allow them to run draws and lotteries.
Mr Browne said the Bill would be going through the final stages in the Seanad and Dáil soon after the Oireachtas returns from its summer recess in late September. He said he held a meeting with the Attorney General earlier this month and will hold another one at the end of the month to progress the legislation.
“We are now on track to go back into Seanad Éireann on around September 26th. The following week it will complete report and final stage in the Seanad and go back to the Dáil around October 8th,” he added.
At that stage, the final vote on the legislation will be completed.
Mr Browne has allowed some amendments, including for draws and lotteries run by charities and sports organisations. He said the amendments had to be carefully drafted to prevent any entity that was not a charity passing itself off as one for the purposes of making profit from a draw.
He also allowed amendments in relation to bingo, after representations were made by that industry, specifically around bingo books.
The Fianna Fáil politician said most of the drafting work being done on the legislation at present related to technical measures associated with consolidating different pieces of legislation, some of which were more than 100 years old.
Mr Browne said he had refused to change or increase the stake limit for casino games and slot machines despite intense lobbying over the matter. He said there was a distinction between those games, which were pure games of chance, and horse racing, where there is an element of skill in terms of choosing a stake.
“For example, with poker casino games there will be bet limits and that’s partly to do with the fact there is no skill in it. There is also the fact that people can bet so much so quickly by continuing to hit the button on that machine,” he said.
Prominent bookmaking companies – including Flutter and Boylesports – separately wrote to dozens of TDs and held meetings with senior politicians and officials to lobby for changes in the legislation.
Many of the commercial companies expressed concern about the consequences of the strict advertising restrictions on the betting and horse-racing industries. Bauer Media, which owns Newstalk and Today FM, and Virgin Media Ireland lobbied on this issue.
In its return to the lobbying register, Virgin Media Ireland said it had met Mr Browne to point out the “potential consequences of the Bill for Virgin Media TV as a public service broadcaster”.
News Brands Ireland, representing newspapers and media organisations, met Department of Justice officials and stated it had sought “clarification on certain provisions affecting news publishers”.
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