Regulators draw up dual system to supervise gambling advertising in Ireland
The ASA and the new Gambling Regulatory Authority will split the responsibility for handling complaints.
Ireland.- The Irish Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), the advertising industry’s self-regulatory organisation, has drawn up plans for a system to streamline complaints related to gambling adverts. The move follows last month’s enactment of the Irish Gambling Regulation Act, which formerly introduced the framework for the creation of the new Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland.
The new legislation bans gambling advertising on television and radio between 5.30am and 9pm and introduces a range of other restrictions. Ads must not promote excessive or compulsive gambling or Represent gambling as socially or financially beneficial, and advertising portraying gambling as attractive to children will be prohibited. Ads will be banned by default on social media and on-demand media and will only be permitted for accounts that subscribe to a gambling operator’s content.
Complaints about gambling ads to be be divided
Orla Twomey, chief executive of the ASA, has said that the Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland will handle any complaints related to alleged breaches of the TV and radio watershed and other obligations under the new legislation. Meanwhile, the ASA will handle complaints related to “a breach of the ASA code of standards but not related to the Gambling Regulation Act”.
Twomey said that by working with the new betting regulator, the authority would ensure “that the public can easily access information on responsible gambling advertising”. She said the authority aimed to ensure ads were legal, decent and honest. It recently reached agreements on collaboration with the Irish Film Classification Office and with the online and media overseer Coimisiún na Meán.
Anne-Marie Caulfield, chief executive designate of the Gambling Regulatory Authority, said the regulator would aim to quickly address any public concerns about gambling advertising by working with the ASA. The new Irish gambling regulator is expected to begin work in the middle of 2025.
Meanwhile, legal experts have pointed out some of the finer changes in the new gambling legislation in Ireland. The current AML legislation that requires a person who directs a private members’ club with gambling to register with the relevant minister is being repealed and replaced by the new licensing regime in the act.
The definition of “designated person” as “a casino” or “a person who effectively directs a private members’ club at which gambling activities are carried on” is being replaced by the more general concept of a provider of “gambling services” as defined in the EU Fourth Money Laundering Directive.
