Debate contribution: Gambling-related Harms: Public Health Approach

Debate contribution by Mr Philip McGuigan on 28 January 2025.

MLA

Mr Philip McGuigan

Party at the time

Sinn Féin

Date

28 January 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Gambling-related Harms: Public Health Approach

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4764075

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I beg to move

Go raibh maith agat, a Cheann Comhairle.

I propose the motion as the chair of the all-party group on reducing harm related to gambling. I begin by thanking the members of the all-party group. It is absolutely a cross-party group, whose membership works in an extremely collegial way, along with the effective and supportive secretariat services provided by Chambré Public Affairs. Collectively, the APG members work to highlight the extent of gambling harm in the North. We carry out inquiries and publish reports on certain aspects of gambling. Ultimately, we make policy proposals that, in our view, will help to address the level of harm to our citizens. From December 2022 to January 2024, the all-party group conducted an inquiry into public health approaches to tackling gambling-related harm in the North. Over 30 witnesses gave oral evidence across 13 sessions, and 45 individuals and organisations submitted written evidence to the APG. The overwhelming weight of the evidence was that gambling is a significant public health issue here. The APG's inquiry report produced 57 recommendations, chief of which was that gambling should be officially recognised as a public health issue in the North. People might ask, "What is a public health approach, and how could it be applied to gambling-related harm?". Adopting a public health approach simply means treating gambling in a similar way to the way in which the Government here treat alcohol and tobacco, with policies focusing not just on the harm caused to individuals but on population-based approaches that prioritise harm prevention. That is because, as with other legal addictive products, such as tobacco and alcohol, the whole population of the North is vulnerable to gambling addiction and harm. What is the extent of the problem here? According to the 2016 gambling prevalence survey, 2·3% of the North's population experiences gambling harm. That equates to 40,000 people. I am pretty certain that, were any other illness to affect 40,000 individuals in our population, we would be looking at it from a health perspective and rightly so. It is likely that that figure is an underestimation of the number of problem gamblers in the North at that time, but it is still more than four times that recorded in Britain and almost three times higher than in the South. Recent data from other parts of these islands suggests that the situation is getting much worse. A 2023 study from the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) in Dublin found that 3·3% of adults in the South experienced gambling harm, and new data from the Gambling Commission shows that 2·5% of the adult population in Britain have a gambling problem, which is eight times higher than was previously thought. We also know from the young persons' behaviour and attitudes survey that 30% of 11- to 16-year-olds in the North have gambled in one form or another in the past 12 months. Despite the fact that the North has a relatively high rate of harm associated with gambling, there are no statutory treatment services for people with gambling disorders here, and the regulations are falling further and further behind the increasingly sophisticated gambling industry. It is important to note and for me to point out that our all-party group in no way seeks to prohibit gambling; rather, it recognises that serious gambling-related harms can and do occur in our communities and that a better coordinated system of regulation, education, treatment and prevention is required to address that reality. That is why the APG argues that regulation should be proportionate to risk. The more harmful and addictive gambling activities should be subject to tighter rules. That system is already in place in other jurisdictions such as New Zealand, and New Zealand's approach is considered to be the gold standard among public health approaches to tackling gambling-related harm. There, the Ministry of Health is consulted by the Ministry for Regulation regarding the harm caused by various products or industry practices, so that public health can be factored into regulation. The Ministry of Health also has a say on the size of New Zealand's levy on gambling operators, which is calculated on the basis of the profitability and the risk of gambling harms of gambling products. Our APG recognises that gambling legislation in the North is in need of a complete overhaul. Since the Oireachtas in the South passed the landmark Gambling Regulation Act last year, the North is the only jurisdiction in these islands without updated gambling legislation since the advent of the internet. Online gambling continues to be unregulated here. The Minister for Communities has been clear that there is insufficient legislative time in the current Assembly mandate to take forward a comprehensive gambling Bill, and we accept that. However, there are important steps that could protect our population from gambling harms that can be taken in the remainder of this mandate without the need for primary legislation. The APG recommends that an integrated, regional public health-focused strategy to prevent and reduce gambling harms should be developed and implemented by the Department of Health in collaboration with other relevant Departments, such as Communities, Education and Justice. The aim should be to end the disjointed Executive approach where one Department promotes an activity as a wealth generator, while other Departments must deal with the attendant health, justice and socio-economic costs. In 2021, my colleague Deirdre Hargey, as Minister for Communities, set up a cross-departmental working group on preventing and treating gambling-related harm in the community. We welcome the whole-Executive approach, which is absolutely necessary, if we are to comprehensively tackle gambling harms. We also recommend that gambling addiction is fully integrated into all relevant strategies, including mental health and suicide prevention. International research suggests that individuals with gambling disorders have a suicide rate 15 times higher than the general population. We need robust measures to tackle the stigma and shame surrounding gambling addiction and to foster an environment of empathy and support for those affected, thus enabling early intervention and preventing further harm. I have spoken about my gambling addiction. Despite being an elected representative, I consider myself quite a private person, so I wrestled long and hard with the decision to go public. Ultimately, I decided that, if my experience of knowing and understanding the pain and depths of despair that an addicted gambler experiences could help even one person, it would be worth it. I am contacted by gamblers, but mostly, I have to say, I am contacted by their desperate family members, stricken by the helplessness that they feel as they watch their loved ones suffer. Thankfully, I have been able to help and direct men and women on how and where to seek help as a result of my experience with the illness. The likes of Gamblers Anonymous, the Dunlewey Addiction Services, Extern and individual addiction counsellors are all invaluable to recovery. Those groups do excellent and life-saving work, but that is not enough to deal with the problem. We have inadequate services to offer those experiencing gambling harm in the North. When I needed help and treatment, I had to go to the White Oaks Addiction Treatment Centre in Donegal. I will be for ever grateful to that centre and to those counsellors, who helped me on the path to recovery. As part of the public health approach, we need appropriate and funded treatment centres in the North. Many public figures, including adored sporting heroes, have talked publicly about their harmful experience of gambling, using their experiences to help to break down the stigma attached to addiction and, more important, allow sufferers out there to know that they are not alone and, vitally, that recovery is possible. I am a bit disappointed when I see a headline to a story in which I talk about my gambling experiences or other public figures talk about theirs that reduces it to the amount of money lost. I understand why that happens — it grabs attention — but people who suffer with a gambling addiction will lose much more than money. Gambling addiction is a deadly illness. It strips away self-respect, self-worth and self-esteem. It affects and, in some cases, destroys employment, friendships and relationships, and, all the while, the illness progresses and the desperation deepens. In some cases, people find themselves before the courts and lose their freedom. Ultimately, for some, the hole that they are in seems too deep. Too many people afflicted with gambling addiction take their own life as a result of the illness, yet we do not treat that killer illness as a public health issue. That needs to change.

1,438 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 11:55 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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