Seanad Eireann has voted in favour of introducing a ban on the practice of placing bets on National Lottery draws under the National Lottery Amendment Bill (2021).
In recent months, concerns have been raised over the number of people placing bets on Lotto draws instead of buying tickets, which ultimately takes money away from the community.
The National Lottery cited its ability to generate funds for Good Causes in their complaint as well as the issue of protecting young and at-risk people from unregulated gambling and gaming products.
The money for that would usually go towards Good Causes is being directly impacted by the growth in the practice of Lottery Betting.
Red C research, conducted on behalf of Premier Lotteries Ireland, showed that Lottery Betting could be generating as much as €570m per annum for bookies.
If this practice is banned, this research estimates it would generate an additional €63 million in Good Causes funding, and would also yield an estimated €13.7million for the 5,400 retailer partners of the National Lottery across Irish communities.
If enacted, the National Lottery (Amendment Bill) will ensure bookies cannot offer bets specifically on National Lottery draws.
However, it won’t prevent them from offering bets on multiple other products, including virtual lotteries, to their customers.
This comes after weeks of news around betting customers winning thousands for guessing the numbers that will appear in the Lotto draw instead of buying a ticket with those numbers.
While gamblers are winning thousands for their guestimates, they would ultimately win more and contribute to positive community funding by purchasing a ticket instead.
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