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Seanad
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Online gambling debts

Summary

Senator Kelly seeks a debate on online gambling, citing young people’s serious debts and the absence of effective consumer protection or oversight.

I seek a debate on the issue of online gambling and betting as a number of young people are in serious debt as a result of this facility being available to them. The betting companies do not care how much money a person loses or how much debt he or she gets into. On the other hand, if a person was to win a large amount of money online, they could shut down his or her account but do not mind bankrupting him or her. There is no watchdog to protect people and we have no way of knowing how big the problem is. I seek a debate on the issue in the House. With cross-party support, perhaps we might arrive at solutions and recommendations to alleviate the pain of some of those affected by it.

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