A major change could be on the way in the world of gambling.
TDs have been debating a proposal to ban bookmakers from allowing punters bet on “lottery type games”.
This is following claims made by a number of TDs that the games risk “cannabilising” the National Lottery’s ‘Good Causes’ fund by €110m annually.
According to RTÉ, The National Lottery estimate that €400m is being spent on “lottery experience” games outside of the official lottery.
It’s claimed that if that money was to be spent on the National Lottery, €110m would go to good causes in areas such as sport and recreation, culture and heritage, the arts and youth clubs health of the community, youth, welfare and amenities, and the natural environment.
It’s also said that 28% of spend on the National Lottery games goes back to ‘good causes’.
Sinn Féin’s Donnchadh O’Laoghaire took to Twitter to explain that the discussion was not about betting on the actual lotto in the bookies, but about online off shore organisations taking money away from national lotteries.
The amendment was focused on online off shore organizations taking money away from national lotteries (not on having a bet on lotto in bookies) but was withdrawn. We had a good discussion and explored the issues but needs more detailed consideration. https://t.co/7Rg20eprRS
— Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (@Donnchadhol) July 10, 2019
O’Laoghaire said: “There is about €110m a year which is lost to good causes – sports clubs, charitable and voluntary organisations – from people not playing the National Lottery and instead playing lottery type experience games.
“Most European countries don’t allow that. I tabled an amendment for discussion at today’s committee meeting so that we can explore that during the committee stage and hopefully move the discussion on and hopefully come to some kind of consensus by the time it comes to report stage.”
Back in April, the Government announced that legislation would be made to change gambling laws in Ireland, including an attempt to modernise the laws with regards to online gambling.
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