Industry response to issues

Most of the well-known companies have installed procedures and provide information to deal with both problems and underage gamblers. Health professionals tend to be sceptical about the good faith in which some of these companies are using such procedures.

For the industry’s part, one source admitted that robust regulation of online gambling is nearly impossible because of the nature of the internet.

Paddy Power’s measures include what the company calls its responsible gambling closure of sites. This is used if a customer says he wants to close his account because he is developing, or has developed, a problem. The customer’s name is noted and thereafter he will be refused if he returns to open a new account.