Stormont: ‘Gambling Wild West damaging society’

MLAs from across the political spectrum have urged the Northern Ireland Executive to do more to tackle gambling.

Stormont approved a motion on tackling gambling-related harms, which highlighted the “urgent need” for children to be protected from “targeted and pervasive” adverts across sport and social media, and called for the introduction of clinics to deal with problem gambling.

Several MLAs also raised concern that Northern Ireland’s “outdated” legislation fails to restrict online gambling, and they called for the Province to follow Great Britain’s statutory levy on betting firms.

‘Bankrupt’

Sinn Féin MLA Colm Gildernew stated: “Addiction to gambling can push victims into serious financial difficulty, debt or bankruptcy. It can cause relationships to break down and employment to be terminated. It is also directly linked to a host of physical and health conditions, including depression and anxiety.”

If we were handing out free shots of alcohol to alcoholics or free cigarettes to smokers in public, nobody would consider that to be acceptable.

“The online gambling industry has been aptly described as the Wild West, in that there appears to be little, if any, effective regulation. The North remains the only region on these islands without an independent regulator to hold gambling companies to account.”

Highlighting the issue of gambling websites promoting ‘free spins’, the Alliance Party’s Danny Donnelly added: “If we were handing out free shots of alcohol to alcoholics or free cigarettes to smokers in public, nobody would consider that to be acceptable.”

Families

Matthew O’Toole of the Social Democratic and Labour Party emphasised the need for immediate action, saying: “Since we debated it in 2021, lives and homes will have been lost. Families will have been broken up. People will have been pushed into desperation and suicide.

“If we are serious about it, we will do more than simply agree this motion — well-meaning and thoughtful as it is — we will legislate.”

In response, Health Minister and Ulster Unionist MLA Mike Nesbitt acknowledged that Northern Ireland’s current legislation “does not effectively address the growing issue of the online market”.

He confirmed that the Department for Communities has commissioned the first gambling prevalence survey since 2016, which will “allow us to make informed decisions about potential policy progression” on the issue.

GPs

Last month, GPs in England were advised to routinely ask patients about gambling, in addition to standard questions about smoking and alcohol.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s ‘Gambling-related harms: identification, assessment and management’ set out recommendations to better identify those at risk from the damage caused by betting.

Under the guidelines, health professionals were encouraged to ask direct questions such as “Do you gamble?” in regular appointments such as health checks, and in cases of “increased risk” such as mental health issues, financial concerns or drug use.