Irish lawmaker calls for major overhaul of gambling laws

Fianna Fail deputy Mike Collins said in an interview with the Limerick Leader newspaper this week that Irish gamblers are facing an increasingly pervasive gambling industry using sophisticated marketing and technology, and that there is a “glaring need” for relevant laws to govern the industry.

Collis argues that current gambling law dated back to 1931 and is inadequate to deal with an industry that has branched out into the Internet, with billion Euro companies vying for gamblers’ business.

He opined that there is an urgent need for a gambling regulator to oversee the multi-faceted industry.

“Not only does the industry have a hugely negative effect on some families, but there is also a big loss to the Exchequer in terms of uncollected taxes. It needs detailed attention to modernise the legislation, which is nearly 100 years outdated in some instances,” he said.

The heads or initial outline of the Gambling Control Bill were published in July 2013, but have yet to go through the Dáil or Seanad. The measure aims to comprehensively address terrestrial and online gambling, which has mushroomed with the development of technology that existing legislation cannot cope with.

“It’s an area that the Government needs to look at as a matter of urgency. There was a cross-over with the bill between the Department of Justice and Department of Finance, but if it was under the aegis of one department it would have been a lot simpler,” said deputy Collins. “It is hard to believe that a billion Euro industry has so little governance.”

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