New gambling law won’t require bookies to check customers are betting within their means

Affordability checks on customers who lose more than a certain sum each month are being considered in Britain but will not be part of the Irish legislation, says Fianna Fáil minister James Browne

James Browne, junior minister: ‘I think if companies were legally mandated to start looking at people’s personal details, you would be running into all sorts of other problems around data protection and other rights.’ Picture: Fergal Phillips

Long-awaited legislation to regulate gambling will not require bookmakers to check that customers are betting within their means.

Affordability checks for customers losing more than a certain amount a month are likely to be part of reforms of gambling regulation in Britain, but are not part of the plans to modernise legislation in Ireland.

Such checks have been promoted in Britain by politicians and campaign groups concerned about the level of gambling addiction. They believe ...