Ireland’s Justice Department Rejects Measures from Gambling Bill Proposal

The Irish Examiner reported that experts have directed criticism towards the Department of Justice for rejecting the proposal and have called its decision a “big miss”.

The Department of Justice Rejects Background Checks

Ireland’s Department of Justice had to review a proposal with a series of measures for the new Gambling Bill that will be submitted for parliamentary discussion in the coming months. 

While a series of recommendations from the Oireachtas Justice Committee were accepted, others were rejected on the grounds that they could be subject to abuse and manipulation.

For example, the Department of Justice rejected the measure which proposed that background checks should be done for every person that registers an account with a gambling company. This measure aims to discover if the gambler has any financial vulnerabilities but the Department pointed out that it could be easily misused and manipulated.

The Department of Justice highlighted that background checks cannot be performed by the gambling companies themselves due to considerations regarding data protection. On the other hand, credit rating companies and agencies are not common in Ireland, which could pose great difficulties in actually performing these background checks on gambling companies’ customers.

Experts have directed criticism toward this recommendation from the Department as gambling is harming more and more people in Ireland. They have pointed out that the UK will most likely introduce such affordability checks despite harsh opposition from gambling companies.

Additionally, Barry Grant from Extern Problem Gambling highlighted that not having credit rating companies in place does not mean it is not possible to create a system of third parties that can perform these affordability checks. 

Gambling Company Liabilities Deemed Impractical

Another measure that Ireland’s Department of Justice rejected was the proposition for gambling companies to be liable to creditors in case they are aware that gamblers have accumulated debt, which is impossible for them to repay.

According to the Department, it is problematic to implement this measure as it is hard to investigate and ensure it is being observed. Additionally, it could be easily abused. For example, anyone could accumulate a small gambling debt in order to not pay a more substantial mortgage.

This measure also poses difficulties as it will be necessary to draw up legislation on the hierarchy of parties that are to be compensated.

In other news, the European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA) has applauded the Irish government for taking steps to bring its gambling legislation to the standards required by the fast pace the gambling industry has been developing in the last few years. Flutter CEO Peter Jackson has also expressed his praise for the upcoming gambling legislation changes and has offered valuable advice to Ireland’s policymakers.