Growth in gambling - Time to face up to online betting issue

THE gambling and pornography industries are two of the primary users of the greatest communication tool ever put at man’s disposal — the internet.

Whether this represents the best use of the enrichment available on www.whatever.com is a subjective question. After all, one man’s anonymous, arm’s length online flirting is another man’s indecent calumny.

However, what is not subjective are the consequences of the misuse of one internet facility — or, as their self-serving advocates suggest, entertainment.

There has been a huge increase in the number of people gambling, and the sums of money gambled, since online gambling became so accessible.

Indeed, online gambling is one of the fastest-growing sectors of online commerce.

Billions are spent every year and, relatively speaking, Ireland makes an increasing and significant contribution to those heady sums.

According to Dr Patrick Wall, associate professor of public health at University College Dublin, the amount of money gambled in this country has jumped from €1.6 million in 2001 to more than €3.6 billion in 2006 — it has more than doubled in five years. And, worryingly, that is just the officially acknowledged, tip-of-the-iceberg figure.

If, in Robin Williams’s words, cocaine is God’s way of telling you that you have too much money, this tremendous increase in gambling confirms we are awash with money and may not always use it wisely.

The industry has accepted that, for them at least, the good times are here.

Paddy Power’s interim results for the first half of last year revealed a 131% increase in operating profits in Ireland. Growth in their online and telephone businesses grew by 53% and 27%. Boyle Sports released 12-month figures up to June 30, which showed operating profits increased threefold to €15.6m from €3.9m.

It is too easy, while considering these balance sheets, to lose sight of the people behind the figures. Though there are many people who can gamble responsibly, there is an increasing number of people becoming addicted to the transient thrill of trying to beat the odds.

Like others addicted to alcohol or illegal drugs, those addicted to gambling are in the grip of a relentless force that more often than not ruins their lives unless they are helped to confront the problem.

Dr Wall has put it in the starkest terms: “People need to understand gambling is often behind unexplained suicide among men in their 40s with no history of mental illness... suicide often seems the only way out because of the shame and the massive debts they’ve accumulated.”

Addictive gambling is at the root of a lot of misery, broken relationships and lives in our society and, because of the sometimes secretive nature of the way it is conducted, we may not be doing enough to ensure those seeking to end the nightmare can easily find the lifeline they so desperately need.

Individuals can only do so much but unless government confronts the potential for despair so obvious in internet gambling this is a problem that will get much worse before it gets better.