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Joint Committee on Justice has published its Report on Pre-Legislative Scrutiny of the General Scheme of the Gambling Regulation Bill

17 Beal 2022, 15:20

The Joint Committee on Justice has published its Report on Pre-Legislative Scrutiny of the General Scheme of the Gambling Regulation Bill in which it makes a series of recommendations following examination of the issue.

Speaking on the report, Deputy James Lawless, Cathaoirleach of the Committee said “In October 2021, Deputy James Browne, the Minister of State for Law Reform, Youth Justice and Immigration, forwarded the General Scheme of the Gambling Regulation Bill to this Committee in accordance with Standing Orders for the purpose of pre-legislative scrutiny of the General Scheme. The Committee agreed to undertake pre-legislative scrutiny and has sought to scrutinise the proposed legislation and provide recommendations on areas where it believes change or amendments are warranted”.

Deputy Lawless said “The Committee has identified several issues and made recommendations on these which are explained in detail in the body of the Report. Among the areas identified for further examination include the prevalence and impact of gambling advertising, particularly on young people; measures to protect vulnerable individuals from developing a problem addiction; Fixed-Odds Betting Terminals; and the self-exclusion scheme for gamblers”.

The Deputy added “I would like to express my appreciation to all the witnesses for their contributions and to the Members of the Committee for their work on this subject. I hope that this report will help to inform the legislative process and make a valuable contribution to the forthcoming legislation.”

 

Read the report here

 

Among the recommendations made in the report include:

Ø  The Committee recommends that an examination be undertaken into the possibility of introducing a Domain Name System (DNS) to block access, at a country level, to gambling operators that are not licensed within the State.

 

Ø  The Committee recommends that a pre-watershed ban be applied to all forms of gambling advertising.

 

Ø  The Committee recommends that the potential to decouple sports advertising and gambling advertising be evaluated, particularly in terms of sports advertisements aimed at young people.

 

Ø  The Committee recommends that the regulator to be established in the General Scheme will apply its new Codes equally to all operators, to ensure socially responsible operations and to afford protections to their customers.

 

Ø   The Committee recommends that automated software be introduced to better complete verification checks of a customer’s age when registering for an account with an online gambling website.

 

Ø  The Committee recommends that consideration be given, with full respect to GDPR provisions, to allowing background checks to be carried out on an applicant when they register for an online gambling website, to ascertain whether this applicant may have any financial vulnerabilities.

Fiosrúcháin ó na meáin

Stephen Higgins

Tithe an Oireachtais,

Oifigeach Cumarsáide,

Teach Laighean, 

Baile Átha Cliath 2

+353 (0) 1 618 4743

+353 (0) 85 801 3096

stephen.higgins@oireachtas.ie

pressoffice@oireachtas.ie

Twitter: @OireachtasNews

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