Irish Examiner View: We're on cusp of a problem gambling tsunami

Former Armagh footballer details his own addiction which is echoed in a study from NUI Galway showing huge growth in smartphone gambling during the lockdown

Former Armagh footballer Oisín McConville has warned that we are on the cusp of a 'problem gambling tsunami'. Picture: INPHO/Cathal Noonan

Addiction is one of the strangest, most unsettling things. It is often, though not always, an affliction that can too easily steer a once blameless life towards the rocks that promise, and more often than not deliver catastrophe. Yet, if an addict can find the will and is offered real support, addiction can be controlled if not entirely or easily beaten.

Part of that control is avoiding temptation. An alcoholic needs exceptional courage to visit a bar - if one were open. Someone with an unequal relationship with cocaine surely knows where and who to avoid. Some do, others don't with almost inevitable consequences.

However, technology has made the prospect of redemption for an out-of-control gambler ever-more difficult. The opportunity to gamble is now almost inescapable. A mobile phone or a laptop are all-but essential in today's world but they are also a 24/7 conduit to a personalized betting shop.  Or if you prefer, shackles that tie a vulnerable person to their tormentor.

The former Armagh footballer Oisín McConville has warned that we are on the cusp of a 'problem gambling tsunami'. He has, bravely, detailed his own addiction which is echoed in a study from NUI Galway showing huge growth in smartphone gambling during the lockdown. This is hardly surprising but what is surprising is the absence of the kind of regulatory support that might stand between a vulnerable, lonely but over-confident person and the sophisticated, self-serving online gambling businesses.