Ex-Paddy Power chiefs urge investors to take operators to task over RG failings
Trio warn operators to focus on increased responsible gambling to avoid repeating the toxicity of the oil and tobacco industries
An Ireland-based group headed by three gambling heavyweights has tasked itself with changing the landscape of the industry by encouraging investors to take companies to task.
A lobbying group called Stop Gambling Harm Now has been set up by former Paddy Power chair Fintan Drury, alongside the company’s co-founder, Stewart Kenny, and Ian Armitage, who was director of the Flutter Entertainment-owned bookmaker’s first financial backer, Mercury Asset Management.
Speaking to the Financial Times, the group said: “Legislators have shown themselves to be slow. It’s the institutional owners who have the power.”
The group has pointed to the toxicity of the oil and tobacco industry and suggested that the gambling sector needs introspection to avoid going the same way.
Drury added: “It is in the owners’ self-interest to act. What I’d like to see is the focus on responsibility being on gambling companies…it’s a David and Goliath fight for an ordinary person with a gambling problem.”
One of the initiatives drafted by Stop Gabling Harm Now is to separate customers into casino and sports bettors in order to prevent crossover of the two. It seeks to prevent cross promotion so that a sports bettor does not see advertising for casino products.
Ireland has recently seen significant activity with relation to gambling reform.
Amending historic gambling laws has been high on the political agenda in Ireland for over two years, yet efforts have been hampered by significant political upheaval caused by successive elections and the impact of Covid-19.
Interim legislation to reform the industry was introduced in December, although progress in turning these proposals into permanent legislation has been slow.
In October, Irish online and retail bookmakers voluntarily agreed to implement a UK-style whistle-to-whistle advertising ban.