Ireland’s Ministry of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food & Marine has hinted that it is rethinking the proposed ban on gambling advertising contained within the Irish Gambling Regulation Bill.
It is under pressure to do so by racing broadcasters who have threatened to quit the market and crash the racing industry, the Irish Times reported October 27.
The broadcasters include the subscription channel Racing TV and Sky Sports Racing, who both say such a ban would make their Irish business untenable.
The broadcasters want an exemption from the proposed ban or they will stop covering Irish racing and Minister Martin Heydon recently said that a “common sense approach” could be used to tweak the proposed legislation that was authored by junior minister James Browne. One such suggestion is to make the proposed ad ban active between 5:30 a.m. and 9 p.m.
Should the ban be enacted, the Irish Racehorse Trainers Association is predicting “very substantial” job losses and gamblers would be driven to sign up with online bookmakers in order to watch the races.
Browne himself continues to discount such dire predictions. However, when Heydon spoke to the Association of Irish Racehorse Owners, he called for a “conciliatory dialogue.”
“I know many of you also have concerns about the gambling legislation that is currently before the Oireachtas,” he said, according to the Times. He added, “It is important that when introducing any legislation, Government considers any possible unintended consequences. I want to see us get the balance right between delivering on our ambitions while also not undermining a vital industry like racing which employs thousands of people across rural Ireland.”
The lower chamber of parliament, the Dail, will soon consider the legislation, the first updating of the country’s gambling laws in nearly a century. The bill has been in the report stage since July. It could be as late as January before it is considered.
Heydon said he is aware that it is important for race horse owners to be able to watch their horses race because often they can’t travel to see them in person. “I firmly believe it is through further and conciliatory dialogue that we can ensure a common-sense approach is taken,” he said.
Horse Racing Ireland commissioned a report from Deloitte that said racing and breeding generated 30,350 jobs last year, and put €2.46 billion into the country’s economy, a 34 percent increase from seven years ago. About 9,400 of those jobs make their living directly or indirectly from the industry.
The Racing Post reported that Ian Brown, chief executive officer of Flutter UK and Ireland, declared some objectionable parts of the bill could spark a “spiral of decline” for the industry and “send thousands of people to the black market.”
Brown largely supports the bill, except for the parts that he believes will cause betting to decline with legal vendors and drive punters toward the black market, where, he said “opportunities for certain people to come to harm is so much greater.”
When Brown met Browne last spring he told him he had five areas of concern, with restrictions on stake limits and inducements and advertising bans among them.
The Flutter CEO told the Racing Post: “Betting duty will fall considerably, stake limits may impact the numbers betting on racing, cost pressures will rise. And that’s before we get on to blackouts on TV because broadcasters will be unable to show famous meetings like Cheltenham. Racing supports 30,000 to 40,000 jobs, it’s a very real part of the economy and a really important part of the rural economy. This is too important to get wrong.”
In a letter sent to Minister Browne, he wrote that it was important “the legislation strikes a balance between introducing effective protection measures and not making the unlicensed black market too attractive by comparison.”
He added, “Due to the way it’s drafted, we fear it will actually send tens of thousands of people to the black market, into the open arms of unlicensed operators, with whom there are no protections and where the opportunities for certain people to come to harm is so much greater.” This would hamper the bill’s goal of creating a safer betting environment for consumers.
The Flutter executive added that its data from the third-party consultant Regulus suggests that 25,000 or more bettors in Ireland would switch to the black market during the first five years. He noted that 3,600 operators serve English-speakers and fewer than 70 of them are licensed in Ireland.
