Alice Mary Higgins and Lynn Ruane come with the proposal to completely ban bonuses withing the Gambling Regulation Bill 2022, which is near to completion to pass into law.
The bill is currently being debated, but a version of the ban on gambling bonuses was initially proposed on the early version of the bill.
Amendments have changed the regulations at the debate stage of the lower parliament in May to allow free bets for players.
Gambling Regulation Bill 2022 is at the end of the senate’s committee stage. After all the proposed amendments are heard in the senate, it will pass to final statements and report stage.
After that will be signed into law.
Irelands gambling bill might be unbalanced in approach to player safeguarding
Senators Ruane latest amendment proposed to the senate debate in 2 October, tries to reinforce the bill original wording.
“These types of inducements are an entry point into gambling for young people. There are clear examples of inducements being banned in different contexts,” Ruane said.
“The national lottery is not allowed to provide tickets for free or at a reduced rate; alcohol retailers are prevented from operating happy hours or loyalty card programmes; and retailers are legally prevented from supplying voucher coupons for tobacco products.”
“Unbalanced” said Senator Ruane when she express herself about safeguarding players and insisted that the bonus should be on the operator and not on the customer.
Senator Mark is also supporting the ban, was asked how the regulator is expected to precisely monitor these rules.
“For the life of me I cannot see why [the minister] has to introduce free bets and inducements. We want to protect the most vulnerable. We have to do so. The only way we can protect the most vulnerable is to use this bill to ban inducements and free bets,” Senator Mark Wall said.
Ban on bonuses might be the gateway for black market.
Senator John McGahon, warned that players might be attracted to the black market in their search for bonuses if they can’t get them from the licensed operators.
The ability to attract new customers and proactively seek out players is fundamental to this business, or any business by that means.
Also Senator McGahon thinks that restriction on bonusing will impact competition among operators that are licensed and their ability to engage with their players.
“Without the ability to communicate directly with potential customers, gambling companies are left at a significant competitive disadvantage, particularly in an industry where other forms of entertainment and digital services are aggressively marketing to similar audiences,” he added
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