Gerard P Craughwell - speech from 16 Apr 2019

Minister, as always you're welcome to this house and especially to discuss this important topic. There have been some solid developments since we last debated this during my private member's motion on regulation of gambling on the 27th of February. For a start, the report of the Interdepartmental Working Group on the Future Licensing and Regulation of Gambling was submitted to Government and Cabinet approved a plan to establish a gambling regulatory authority. To the uninformed listener or viewer, this might have sounded like a radical and progressive development, but we all know that the bill which would make this happen has been languishing on the shelf over the last six years. While it is acknowledged that the Gambling Control Bill is the form first envisaged by Government in 2011, it is now out of date. I believe that this is a piece of legislation that we should be focusing on now, as a matter of urgency and not on this current bill, which is at best a piecemeal measure and at worst legislation which is likely to be subject to legal challenge in the European courts. With a focus on prohibition rather than regulation, it will be seen by many as a regressive rather than progressive step in the sector. I commend my colleagues in Fianna Fáil who brought forward their own Gambling Control Bill as a private member's bill. This bill proposed a comprehensive new and unified licensing and regulatory framework for gambling in Ireland. The bill provided for the creation of 43 new licences covering both land-based and remote gambling activities, as well as for a regulator under the jurisdiction of the Department of Justice. The bill has great merits. A failed attempt to introduce piecemeal measures to address gambling concerns in Part 13 of the General Scheme of Civil Law and Courts Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2017 has now re-emerged as the bill before us today. Minister, you have described the Gaming and Lotteries Amendment Bill 2019 as an interim measure until the new Gambling Control Bill is brought forward. With respect, an interim measure almost eight years since the idea of Gambling Control Bill was first discussed by Government would be laughable if it was not such a serious matter. I am sorry, Minister, but the interim horse has long since bolted and the introduction of this bill will have serious, unanticipated and perhaps unintended consequences for the industry. The bill, as proposed, creates a gaming permit which is primarily designed to facilitate fundraising for charitable and philanthropic purposes. Conditions attached to the permit include a gaming permit shall not be issued to a person for any kind of gaming which, by reason of the nature of the game, the chances of all players, including the banker, are not equal. The stake in each game shall not be more than €10 for each player. No player may win more than €3000 in each game whether the game is conducted in a single or multiple events. No stake shall be hazarded by players with the holder of the gaming permit other than the charge for the right to take part in the game. No more than 5% of the total proceeds of the ticket sales shall be retained by the holder of the gaming permit in respect of any game. What this will translate into, in reality, is the annihilation of an entire segment of the gambling sector in Ireland. The conditions attached to the gaming permit are of no commercial value and will oblige the 40 private members' clubs throughout Ireland to cease trading. Added to this, the bill also establishes a gaming licence as a means of enforcing local council directives, outlawing gaming and amusement halls or funfairs. It is an administrative area. The conditions attached would likewise lead to the closure of approximately 100 amusement halls and funfairs around the country. Overall, Minister, we are looking at job losses in the region of €3000 across the country, depriving the state of income derived from VAT at 23%, corporate taxation, income tax, employer social contributions, not to mention the impact on tourism. Representatives from the private members' clubs and amusement halls are all in favour of regulation. In fact, Minister, they have been lobbying you and your department for over a decade. They are not in favour of prohibition or measures that would effectively make their business commercially unviable. It is worrying that the consequences of the bill are at variance with the recommendations of your own interdepartmental working group report, which said that gambling and gaming should be regulated rather than prohibited. We are now the only one of 28 member states which does not regulate gambling in this fashion. By passing this legislation, which prohibits rather than regulates, we are running contrary to everything industry's best practice, and international research across Europe is telling us. Furthermore, if this legislation is passed, the restrictions are placed on access to gaming licences for amusement halls based on geographical region. It will be a breach of EU legislation as interpreted by the European Court of Justice in 2014. I am very concerned that there has been no regulatory impact assessment provided for the bill and no opportunity for meaningful consultation within the sector before it was introduced. You might advise me, Minister, why this was not undertaken. Minister, I have serious concerns about the way that this bill is being described and framed to the positive when the consequences are actually disastrous. You say that the bill will make arrangements for better promotion of lotteries, updating certain stakes and price limits, and standardising the minimum gambling age at 18. In reality, the bill will provide for not the de facto prohibition of land-based gaming in favour of online betting. If there is an elephant in the room, it is the online betting sector which gets absolutely no mention in this bill, despite assurances to the contrary three months ago. In December 2018, Minister, you told the Irish Times that you plan to amend the 1956 Act, which deals mainly with gaming machines and amusement arcades, to include the begrudging area of online gambling. I am asking you today, Minister, why you have not included online gaming and what has changed in three months. You are now creating a situation where online betting and online gaming remains an unregulated activity. The lack of regulation in Ireland enables online service providers to beam their service into the state without any obligation to offer self-exclusion facilities, time-out facilities or obliging new customers to set maximum spending limits when opening an online account. In other EU member states, unlicensed online operators are denied access to their citizens by ISP blocking. We have nothing comparable here, Minister, despite the technology being available to do so. Common sense will tell us that if private members' clubs and amusement halls or arcades are put out of business, people will continue to seek opportunities for gaming and gambling. We already know that those with internet access and mobile devices will migrate to online gaming sites with a known risk of developing a gambling problem three times greater than land-based venues. The Bill Minister effectively hands unfair commercial advantage to online operators on a plate. In order to gamble online, a credit card or debit card is typically required in order to access funds with which to gamble. The use of credit with no predetermined limits for the purposes of gambling will encourage individuals to gamble beyond their means. Research tells us that there are already approximately 45,000 people suffering from gambling addiction in Ireland. Ireland ranks third in terms of gaming losses per capita after Australia and Singapore, but worst ranks first in terms of online gambling losses per capita. Who I would be really worried about are those vulnerable people in society who will be drawn into underground and backstreet facilities where they could be exposed to sharp practices and money lenders offering credit at exorbitant rates. I said in February that the scale of online gambling is fast becoming a crisis of epic proportions. Since then, I have been gathering statistical information to back this up. The findings are frightening. The global online gambling market is anticipated to generate revenues of more than $74 billion by 2023, with a jump of over 47% in revenue between now and the 2023. Our own Paddy Power is now one of the top five online providers in the market. The top products are online betting, online casino, online lottery. I am almost finished now. In this context, I cannot understand why other European countries have successfully regulated their online industry and we have not. I believe that the government is creating the illusion that it intends to regulate or is in the process of regulating. But in reality, we are sadly no further down the road than we were in 2011, despite the seismic shift in technology, behaviour and online availability. In conclusion, I regret that we are here today spending valuable time on a piece of legislation that does more harm than good. It will undermine livelihoods, put the government at risk of legal challenge in the European courts, offer zero consumer protection and steadfastly ignores the contribution and contributes to an even increasing rise in online problem gambling in Ireland. This is not the kind of legacy either you or this government would want, Minister. I am sure of that. I am aware, Minister, of your deep concerns in gambling and I do believe that you genuinely want to do something with it. I am not sure. I have allowed you flexibility. Thank you. Thank you very much. Senator Martin. Thank you very much. Thank you.