Debate contribution: The Gaming (Variation of Monetary Limits) Order (Northern Ireland) 2025

Debate contribution by Mr Matthew O'Toole on 28 January 2025.

MLA

Mr Matthew O'Toole

Party at the time

Social Democratic and Labour Party

Date

28 January 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Executive Committee Business

Heading

The Gaming (Variation of Monetary Limits) Order (Northern Ireland) 2025

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4763835

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I am not seeking to attack the Minister on this. That is not what this is about for me. I know that we are the Opposition, but I believe that there is a disjoint in the Chamber. I have made this point consistently, and I made it yesterday when we were debating certain matters: the public want to know what we are doing to deliver on their priorities. Later, they will see us debate an all-party motion on gambling-related harm, in which we call it a public health crisis. Earlier on the same day, our related legislative intervention is to increase some of the payments that can be made. The fact that our rhetoric often does not match the legislative action invites the public to question how serious and joined-up we are.

I acknowledge that, as the Minister said, some of this was agreed to in 2021, but it is also the case that, when the then Minister, his predecessor, introduced that Bill — I have looked at it in Hansard — she said that it was not sufficient. She acknowledged that more needed to be done. That was three and a half years ago. In those three and a half years, lives have been lost, marriages have broken up and families have been pushed into destitution and desperation by what the motion to be debated later today calls a public health crisis. As legislators, the legitimate question that we should be asking ourselves is this: "What are we doing?". All-party motions are an important statement of intent, but infinitely more important than passing a motion with statements of intent and aspiration is legislative action to, for example, as the Minister mentioned, align with the position in GB. South of the border, in the other part of this island, it is illegal to have gaming machines in pubs. That is not illegal in the North, so there is one alignment that could be brought into force. That is something to consider. I am not saying that that is definitely the right course of action, but it is one potential legislative action that is open to us. There is a range of regulatory measures that, because gambling is devolved — that is why we are debating it today — we have the power to introduce. Some of the issues that touch on gambling, such as advertising and broadcasting, are reserved matters, but not all of them. I will simply put it this way: there are perfectly good arguments in favour of what is happening today in this secondary legislation and I acknowledge that the Minister is, in many ways, following through on commitments that were made by his predecessor and were agreed to. I do not think that we are necessarily adding to the crisis of problem gambling by increasing the potential payouts in certain community contexts, but it is the case that we are not yet taking visible legislative action to go further, which is what we were told in 2021 that we would do. Later today, we will debate a motion, signed by all five parties in the Chamber, that says that there is a public health crisis. Let us get real.

I will briefly give way to the Minister.

Indeed, I get only five minutes on this legislation. I appreciate the Speaker's intervention, and he is right that we should focus on the matters at hand. My point is to draw the public's attention to the disparity between what we are doing in legislative terms and what we are doing through motions, and I think that they are increasingly drawing that distinction. The Minister has made some legitimate arguments, and I acknowledge that he is engaged in the issue, but it is really important that we take legislative action and not simply pass motions, legitimate as they are. The public will start to become cynical if they simply hear warm words but see no legislative action, which is, after all, what we are here to deliver. As you said earlier, Mr Speaker, when you talked about your correspondence to all Members, we are in this place to be legislators and to change the law. We are not a school debating society. We should take seriously the responsibilities that have been given to us. We have the power to change the law and to create criminal offences. We authorise billions of pounds of spending and can levy taxation that is a mandatory charge on the Northern Ireland public. Let us take our responsibilities seriously. That is the simple point that I wanted to make today on the two items of business on gaming that are in front of us.

780 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 11:53 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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