Stop licensed bookmakers taking bets on the National Lottery, Minister Donohoe told
Stop licensed bookmakers taking bets on the National Lottery: RGDATA urges Public Expenditure & Reform Minister
RGDATA has written to Minister Paschal Donohoe asking him to address concerns about loss of funds for Good Causes and National Lottery retail agents’ commission to licensed bookies taking bets on the National Lottery. The practice has been banned in other EU countries and should be banned in Ireland too.
“RGDATA remains deeply concerned that Ireland’s position as a laggard across EU member states in facilitating Lottery Betting on our National Lottery continues to inflict considerable damage across a range of different fronts. The concerns about the practice have emanated
from a wide range of stakeholders including organisations representing Good Causes funding recipients, charitable bodies and gambling awareness charities” RGDATA explained in its correspondence to the Minister.
“For every month that passes where this problem is not addressed, Good Causes funding suffers and retail agents loose out. We would urge you to initiate a consultation process on the practice of Lottery Betting to help the Department to determine its approach to the matter and to canvas the different options that are available to address the practice.
“It may be of interest to the Department to note that in the UK (prior to Brexit), a consultation process was initiated in relation to the regulation of lottery betting in that jurisdiction and that this process was seen as being of importance in determining the proportionality of the measure when in 2018 the UK High Court upheld the compatibility of the UK ban on Lottery Betting with EU law. Indeed, it maybe that the Department’s consultation process could also canvas legal perspectives on how the practice can be concluded. Given that the practice has been banned in the majority of EU member states, RGDATA would be surprised if there is an EU legal impediment to Ireland introducing a national ban.”
