Irish group lobbies for credit card ban

A lobbying group from Ireland wants the local government to follow the UKGC directive to ban credit cards for gambling.

Ireland.- A group from Ireland is lobbying for the Government to follow UK Gambling Commission’s (UKGC) path and ban the use of credit cards for gambling both online and offline. Problem Gambling Ireland believes that a ban would help with gambling debt in the territory.

According to a UKGC directive, from April 14 consumers won’t be able to use their credit cards to gamble. The ban applies to all online and offline gambling products, with the exception of non-remote lotteries. The UKGC says that it provides a significant layer of additional protection to vulnerable players.

Barry Grant, chief executive of Problem Gambling Ireland, said that while desired, a credit card ban is unlikely to happen until Ireland comes up with an independent gambling industry regulator, according to the Irish Examiner. That entity has already been approved but it’s not expected to be operational until the end of the year or early 2021.

Ireland approved new maximum stake for gambling machines

The local government has recently approved new changes that will see a new maximum stake of €5 for gambling machines. The changes include a new €500 limit as a maximum payout for electronic gaming or slot machines. These limits were last updated in 1956 and the government argued that they needed to modernise the local framework.

David Stanton, Minister of State in the Department of Justice, said: “Modifying stake and prize amounts is the only current role of the Minister for Justice and Equality with regard to gaming machines. The proposal had been to raise these amounts to €10 and €750 respectively.

“However, during the Dáil committee stage debate on July 10, 2019, on the modernisation of the stake and prize amounts, some Deputies felt that the proposed amounts were excessive. The Minister of State undertook to consider the matter and now proposes €5 and €500.”