For Irish fans of the Premier League, it can be hard to avoid the branding, sponsorship and advertising of gambling companies accompanying much of the coverage.
Football teams still have their logos emblazoned on their jerseys and, despite a decision to remove them from the front of shirts from next season, will still be able to carry them on their jersey sleeves.
Video hoardings on the sidelines are also permitted to carry messages from betting companies – and are extensively used by the industry to promote their products.
A study in Britain last year showed there were more than 5,000 instances of visible gambling advertising during the Premier League clash of Wolves and Manchester City in August.
In Ireland, new legislation will make the broadcast of gambling advertising illegal between the hours of 5.30am and the 9pm watershed.
And, in an attempt to protect children, sports kits manufacturers in the Republic will not be allowed to distribute jerseys or merchandise in children’s sizes that carry such branding.
A new regulator, established under the Gambling Regulation Act 2024, will have the power to grant new gambling licences, police gambling advertising and impose significant fines.
But despite some initial indications the Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland (GRAI) intended to prevent the broadcast of events that included hoarding advertising, such as those Premier League games, the legislation does not permit this.
Prof Colin O’Gara: ‘There’s huge profits being made on one side and on the other side there is significant harm being inflicted.’ Photograph: Marc O’Sullivan
Prof Colin O’Gara, a consultant psychiatrist at St John of God Hospital in Dublin, is a fierce critic of the gambling industry.
“What we need is tighter regulation to redress the imbalance that’s out there – where there’s huge profits being made on one side and on the other side there is significant harm being inflicted,” he says.
While insisting on the need for further regulation, he says Ireland has taken a step forward with the new legislation given that the previous regime was largely rooted in law “from the 1950s”.
O’Gara says research by independent think tank the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) in 2023 was a “watershed moment”, revealing that problem gambling was much more prevalent than previously reported.
The study, authored by Prof Pete Lunn, found that one in 30 adults had a problem, 10 times higher than measured in a previous study in 2019.
“It moved the dial from the concept that the prevalence of addiction was somewhere between 0.7 and 1 per cent in the population,” says O’Gara.
“And that had been the narrative – that there was a small number of people who couldn’t control themselves. We had seen a form of victim-blaming for two decades – and we saw it in British gambling surveys as well.”
The point is that this disease is a biologically driven brain disease
— Prof Colin O’Gara
O’Gara says the wider industry fed off such an idea with some of its “safer gambling” campaigns. He cites the well-known slogan pushed by the betting industry in the UK – “when the fun stops, stop” – as an example.
“There are two things about that,” he says.
“One, gambling was put forward as something that was inherently fun. Two, the idea that you can just stop is what we all do as normal people, but for those people who can’t stop, then shame on you. Fascinating marketing – the word ‘fun’ being in very big capitals.”
He says research now definitively shows that, for many people with gambling problems, the idea they can simply choose to stop is deeply flawed.
“The point is that this disease is a biologically driven brain disease,” he says.
Research published by the ESRI last week showed that problem gambling was much more likely among people exposed to gambling as children.
Some students say they can manipulate accounts in order to get around age verification and get online
— Tony O’Reilly
It found the majority of people sampled had engaged in at least some form of gambling when under 18 years old.
Tony O’Reilly stole €1.75 million from the Co Wexford post office that he managed to fuel his gambling addiction. In 2012, he was sentenced to four years in prison. He now works as a counsellor for people dealing with similar addiction problems.
“The main age cohort of people coming to me has definitely dropped over the last couple of years,” he says. “A big part of my work is doing school talks – talking to them on a daily basis – and they are sharing that they are already gambling at age 15 and 16.”
O’Reilly says he believes this increase in gambling among youngsters is down to the “normalisation” of gambling through the industry’s tie-ins with sports such as football and darts, and the prevalence of gambling apps on mobile phones.
“For example, some students say they can manipulate accounts in order to get around age verification and get online. The bookie company thought they were 28, but it is only when they try to take money that the company discovers their age,” he says.
He has also seen a significant increase in the number of women presenting with gambling problems. O’Reilly suspects this is due to the easier access to online betting whereas previously people had to enter the “macho” culture of a bookie shop in order to take a punt.
“Being online takes away any sort of stigma. When the lottery first came out, the bookies put it at the front door so women didn’t have to go all the way to the bookie’s desk,” he says.
He is optimistic the new legislation will have a positive impact. He is in particular very supportive of the self-exclusion register, which allows people to block themselves from accessing betting sites in future.
He would like, however, to see this sort of register also extended to on-street bookmaker shops.
As for advertising, O’Reilly says the daytime ban on broadcast ads will make a difference but he wonders about the upcoming Fifa World Cup finals next summer when many matches will be screened late at night or early in the morning due to time differences in the host countries of US, Canada and Mexico.
Fifa has also strengthened commercial ties to the betting industry in a recently agreed deal that will allow some gambling operators live-stream World Cup games.
O’Reilly is concerned people “who have drink on board” could easily be swayed by particular types of promotions such as special odds being offered during games.
“When I was recovering, the advertisements at most stages didn’t bother me. But the old Ray Winstone ads – the ones with odds being flashed up on screen during games – that could really be triggering,” he says.
Over at the new regulator’s offices they are ready to get going, says its chief executive Anne Marie Caulfield, but as of this week were still waiting on a commencement order that will bring the watchdog into operation.
“Commencement orders allow us to open for licensing,” she says.
Anne Marie Caulfield, chief executive of the Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland (GRAI). Photograph: Conor McCabe
“The first big cohort will be the online betting area. Their licences expire for remote betting in July of this year. We need to have them licensed. The ‘on-site’ licences then expire in November. It is important that we bring them into the regulatory tent.”
Caulfield says there has been broad political support for the new regime in the face of extensive lobbying from the betting industry.
“It is acknowledged that Minister James Browne pushed through this legislation; I think he’s on the record as saying he could have wallpapered his office with the amount of lobbying material he received,” she says.
She highlights the ban on gambling company branding on children’s sports clothing and merchandise as being important in light of last week’s findings from the ESRI. She says clothing companies will have 12 months to adjust their stock from when the ban is commenced.
“We are trying to decouple for children the experience of watching sports and gambling – they are not the same thing,” she says.
The Irish Bookmakers Association, which represents the likes of Paddy Power owner Flutter and Bet365, has welcomed the establishment of the regulator.
In a statement, the association said it was “continually investing in and enhancing safer gambling and player protection initiatives”.
Also, it added that its Safer Gambling Week campaign was a “clear demonstration of this commitment and an important industry-wide effort to raise awareness and promote responsible play”.