Betting (Prohibition on Use of Credit Cards) Bill 2021

Public bill · Private Member · Introduced

The measure would stop licensed bookmakers from taking bets paid for with credit cards, including through electronic wallets or similar payment systems that could let a credit card be used indirectly. To get or keep a betting licence, a business would have to promise not to accept those payments, and the Minister could revoke certain fitness certificates or the courts could revoke licences if that promise is broken. It matters because it aims to curb debt and problem gambling by blocking people from betting with borrowed money.

Formal long title

Bill entitled an Act to amend, in the interest of the common good, the Betting Act 1931 so as to prevent the placing of bets or otherwise dealing in bets that involve the use of a credit card, and for that purpose to prohibit the acceptance of such bets or dealing in such bets by providing that no licence shall be issued by the Revenue Commissioners under that Act unless the applicant for the licence has given them an undertaking not to accept bets or otherwise deal in bets that involve the use either directly or indirectly of a credit card, to amend sections 5C and 16 of that Act and to provide for related matters.

Last updated 14 November 2024