GAA praised for their 'socially responsible approach' towards gambling

Three years ago, the organisation voted to implement an explicit ban on gambling sponsorship and advertising at all levels of the sport throughout the island of Ireland

Sun, 28 Mar, 2021 - 16:25

John Fogarty

The GAA are keen to see “in-play” betting prohibited in matches, according to a new report on gambling in Ireland.

The study, funded by Gambling Awareness Trust, revealed the GAA had planned for an awareness campaign on an All-Ireland senior semi-final weekend, which was postponed due to the pandemic.

Three years ago, the organisation voted to implement an explicit ban on gambling sponsorship and advertising at all levels of the sport throughout the island of Ireland.

A spokesperson for the GAA told the authors of the report, Professor Aphra Kerr, Professor John O’Brennan, and Dr Lucia Vazquez Mendoza, they introduced the ban because there was “a fear that, the sport for sports sake was being diminished, that unless you had the message being presented by gambling firms, unless you had a wager or bet on a sporting event, then you didn’t have skin in the game, so to speak. Whereas our entire model is based on you playing for the club from where you were born, you support the county in which you live or from where you were raised.”

The integrity of games was also a concern for the GAA, particularly at club level, and according to the report “the GAA would like to go further by banning the ‘in play’ betting options offered on games. This is the kind of proactive approach only an independent regulator can champion, according to our interviewee from the GAA.”

This year, the GAA will launch a new education and awareness campaign nationally and regionally with funding of €52,000 provided by the Gambling Awareness Trust towards the development of a programme and an advertising campaign aimed at players and members at all levels.

The GAA’s “socially responsible approach” was applauded in the study “in stark contrast to the approach of the Football Association of Ireland (FAI)” whose commercial agreement with Kenyan betting company Sport Pesa and Dundalk’s deal with BetRegal was highlighted.

The report found that gambling revenues in Ireland have increased over the last year despite the closure of betting shops for long periods. As more online accounts have been open, it discovered two thirds of men, women, and U18s are gambling in Ireland and up to 55,000 people are estimated to have a serious gmabling disorder. Yet there is no gambling-specific public health programme to treat problem gamblers.

It also identified a trend towards the “gamblification” of sports and increasing levels of gambling advertising on mainstream and online media in Ireland, which is contributing to problems and wider social harms.

The report concludes: “Too much time has already been wasted and 2021 must see a decisive change in the Irish gambling landscape. Covid can not be allowed to further stall this important legislative agenda because covid is further contributing to the growth of online gambling and potentially gambling harms more broadly.”