Ireland’s Justice Minister Alan Shattter has published draft legislation that will allow for 40 small casinos around the country with up to 15 gambling tables each but with no electronic casino-style table games
Slot machines will be allowed, capped at 25 per venue, under the Gambling Control Bill, which will be submitted for public consultation prior to debate in the Dáil and the Seanad, the lower and upper houses of the national legislature.
“I believe that this Bill will give Ireland a well regulated gambling system that will be recognised as such internationally,” the minister said.
In addition to the ban on fixed-odds betting terminals, as e-tables are known, the 90-page bill provides for the creation of a gambling oversight agency under the Justice Ministry, which will exercise final licensing, regulatory and enforcement authority. The agency also will oversee the country’s online and remote gambling industries.
Casinos are prohibited in Ireland, but casino-style gambling takes place in an estimated 34 licensed private members clubs by virtue of a loophole in laws dating back to the 1950s. Plans to legalize and expand the market have been discussed for years with no result. In 2011, the government blocked a proposed €460 million super-casino in Tipperary.
Mr Shatter said, “We’ve made very specific decisions in the public interest. Those specific decisions include a decision that we will not be making provision for resort-style casinos.”
The FOBT ban is derived from proximity to the UK, where the machines are a highly lucrative and highly controversial fixture in betting shops across the nation, viewed by health experts and many community and political leaders as a particularly exploitative and addictive form of gambling.
