Extent of gambling addiction 'substantially underestimated'

Further research is needed to understand the extent and severity of problem gambling in Ireland, and its impact, says the ESRI.

The extent of gambling addiction in Ireland is likely being substantially underestimated and gamblers are being “lulled” into spending money on complex, unlikely bets, a new paper has said.

The ESRI’s Behavioural Research Unit has found that while recent data states tens of thousands of people in Ireland are at risk from problem gambling, the methods used to reach that conclusion likely underestimate the problem.