THE number of people struggling with a gambling addiction is on the rise — but the exact number is anyone’s bet.

That’s because there’s little official information to be found relating to this issue, with HSE figures showing just 800 people were treated for a gambling addiction in the past three years.

In contrast, Problem Gambling Ireland, who are dedicated to reducing gambling-related harm, stated that in the last three years alone they had 100,000 unique visitors to their website.

Experts say that action is needed, but info on the scale of the issue must come first.

 
Here Louise O'Reilly, Sinn Fein TD for Fingal, explains why we can’t ignore Ireland’s gambling crisis any longer:

THE television is on and there’s about 30 seconds to kick-off in a game in the second tier of English football.

The league is sponsored by a gambling company, the game is taking place in a ­stadium named after a gambling company and the two teams are sponsored by gambling companies.

And as the 30 seconds of ad breaks start to count us down to kick-off, a floating head shouts odds down the screen about first throw in, first yellow card, and first goal scorer.

 
Despite what anyone will tell you, we are in the grip of a problem gambling crisis.

Problem gambling is a condition where the affected individual has a continuous urge to gamble — despite negative consequences or a desire to stop.

In 2017 industry experts H2 Gambling Capital produced a report into global gambling losses.

It found that Ireland has the third highest gambling losses in the world, per capita.

This means Irish people lose around €2.2billion a year — or €470 per adult.

If you consider the number of people who wouldn’t ever lay a bet, that means there are a lot of problem gamblers losing a considerable amount of money per year.

However, the reality is that we do not have exact figures for the number of problem gamblers in this State because the Government refuses to do a survey that would allow us get the full picture.

This type of survey was done in 2017 for Northern Ireland, showing the rate of problem gambling there to be 2.3 per cent, nearly five times higher than England.

If we were to use that figure for the South, we have close to 100,000 problem gamblers. But if we don’t have a dedicated ­survey for Ireland, this hinders our efforts to get the resources and support to those who need it.

Despite what the gambling industry will say and despite what ‘funny’ tweets or billboards they erect, we need stiffer regulation and we need it urgently. It might all be a bit of fun, but we ­cannot let that blind us to the real hardships caused by problem gambling.

If we’re talking about the latest outrageous stunt then we’re not talking about the damage that is being done to those who are unable to gamble without stopping.

Getting access to gambling has never been easier. All you need do is take out your phone to see the next five races from anywhere in the world, or play virtual casino games for high stakes.

There’s no cash changing hands and it is easy to forget it’s not just a video game.

Combined with aggressive marketing, people are more susceptible than ever to developing problem gambling habits, particularly teenage boys and young men.

But these people are being failed by governments that have sat on their hands and done nothing.

The Gambling Control Bill which is supposed to address the issues around the gambling industry has been gathering dust since 2013, despite the scale of the problem increasing.

It is far past time that we see the industry properly regulated by the State.

We need proper protections for problem gamblers. 
 
 
We need responsibility from the gambling industry.

Above all, we need proper regulation.

We are in the eye of a problem gambling storm and hoping the problem will go away by itself is glib and dangerous.

This article is a reprint from TheSun.ie.   To view the original story and comment, click here.