What happend to the Republic of Ireland updated gambling bill? We bring you the latest update directly from Mr Brown and the Irish government. (Photo by Kowshik Roy sagor on Unsplash)
The Republic of Ireland updated gambling bill now has its framework written into an official and ready-to-submit ‘Regulations Bill’ which is expected to be completed by the end of summer.
The bill is being addressed in Parliament sometime during September, which will lead to a vote for the Government to either accept or reject it. Acceptance will then mean the saga is over and Republic of Ireland online casinos will come under new regulations.
James Browne, who represents the Department of Justice as a Minister for Law Reformation, stated that the country is also talking about establishing a regulatory body which will also be addressed in September.
If reports are to be believed, the new changes will see a gambling ‘tsar’ who will have no more than 100 staff of independent experts under their leadership. This will allow the government to focus on regulatory and legislative work, which they hope will bring significant alterations to the current gambling sector setup.
James Browne is hopeful that the legislation gets passed into law in September, as he believes it to be a crucial piece of legislation that the country has seen for 10 or more years. Giving further clarification regarding the ‘tsar’, Mr Browne said that they will be independent and will have a set of 100 industry specialists to aid the tasks at hand.
Mr Browne continued by revealing that the new regulatory body and board will have powers given to them that will allow them to impose fines on those gambling companies who fail to meet the new standards. For persistent offences or more serious individual offences, gambling companies may even see their licenses revoked. Much of this information echoes our previous report on the Irish gambling bill.
Republic of Ireland Updated Gambling Bill Looks at Big Changes
As we know from James Browne, it will not be just public health experts that will provide advice regarding the negative impacts of problem gambling. Some of problem gambling’s negativities are not health-related; they are to do with fraud, money laundering, and in some cases even a channel for financing terrorism. Mr Browne is aware that, for many years, criminals have found it pretty easy to wash dirty money by the way of gambling operators.
James Browne is a member of the Republic of Ireland’s Fianna Fáil party and believes that any new gambling watchdog along with the members of the board will have great powers of authority that will stretch far and wide. The tough stance will probably see operators who fail to comply given hefty fines and run the risk of losing licenses temporarily or even fully revoked.
The expected gambling laws will cover over every inch of the gambling industry across the Republic of Ireland, and Mr Browne expects the new laws to be comprehensive without the need of further update.
The new laws in Ireland will give those people suffering from problems associated with gambling, an opportunity to reject gambling services. These individuals will have the option for self-exclusion from services and will therefore forfeit their right to place bets. They would also submit their bank details, which would be shared with all gambling establishments throughout the country, eliminating another temptation for the individual to gamble. This self-exclusion process is completely voluntary, working as a way for those with an addiction to register and have a better chance of fighting off their bad habit.
The advertising of gambling will also get addressed, as there looks to be stricter regulations imposed by the regulations. The new watchdog for gambling will have a complete oversight of gambling adverts, which has been previously under the watch of Ireland’s Broadcasting Authority.
Lastly, as part of the Republic of Ireland updated gambling bill, Irish nationals will be unable to use credit card payments as a way of funding gambling activities. Special offers and other incentives related to gambling are to be suspended as the main aim of them is to encourage people into gambling more than what they would do usually.
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