Recently, the President of Ireland Michael D Higgins has said there are serious matters to be considered when it comes to sports betting advertising at a time when the country regulators have started a gambling sector overhaul.
The statement was issued after earlier in July the Irish President appeared at a 34-unit gambling rehabilitation centre, which is hosted in Wicklow and run by the Tiglin charity organisation. At the time, he also discussed some gambling-related matters and criticised the large number of gambling adverts aired on television.
At first, his comments addressed sports betting advertising – an issue that the Irish Labour Party, of which Mr Higgins was a member by the time he got elected as President ten years ago – has already raised in the Dáil Éireann, the country’s Parliament, throughout the year. According to his statement, the President welcomes the fact that the debate on gambling and sports betting advertising has been brought up for a public debate.
At the time the statement was officially launched, President Higgins explained that he had spoken about the issue at the opening of the aforementioned addiction rehabilitation centre. He also highlighted that sports betting could be harmful to people who find it hard to control their gambling habits and gambling advertisements are dangerous as they continue to cause much damage to individuals and families across the country.
Irish Lawmakers Need to Address Gambling Advertisements Issues, Campaigners Say
The President’s statement comes at a time when the country’s Government has been facing strong criticism for neglecting the regulation of the gambling industry over the last twenty years. According to the critics, the Irish lawmakers need to be more proactive and must take responsibility for some developments in the regulation of the sector.
This is the second time in two years that President Higgins has criticised gambling advertising. Now, he once again said that there are serious questions in regard to the country’s gambling sector that need to be answered.
In February, the Irish Labour Party launch its Gambling (Prohibition of Advertising) Bill 2021, which seeks to introduce a blanket ban on gambling advertisements on television in case it gets the green light from both the lower and the upper houses of the country’s Parliament.
At the same time, two of the leading sports authorities in Ireland – the Gaelic Players Association (GPA) and the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) – have both urged the lawmakers to impose measures that would result in detaching the sports sector from the gambling industry. The two organisations have also called for a gambling advertising ban in the country. However, the opponents of the proposed measures have been insisting on the view that the issue is an internal matter that should be addressed by the sports clubs themselves, although a ban on betting sponsorships has been rolled out by the Football Association of Ireland (FAI).
- Author
Daniel Williams
