Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

These amendments are grouped so I am trying to look at the impact of all of them. Let us look at amendment No. 65. I am doing this on the hoof so apologies. Amendment No. 65 seeks to delete "game, betting activity or lottery" and substitute "game or lottery". That is being proposed for the purposes that the Minister of State has just outlined. Why would we want charities involved in betting, other than race nights? Deputy Gould's point is worthy of clarification in terms of pool betting. Section 65 refers to the type of game, betting activity or lottery activity. Basically, we are deleting the requirement for them to outline the betting activity when they are applying for a licence for pool betting activity. Is that the intention? This is a gambling licence for a charitable or philanthropic purpose. Pool betting takes place at night at the races. Night at the races is very common. I have run many of them myself for different groups and charities. If a person is applying for a licence for those, the application will be blank at that stage. Is that what we are saying? A person will not even have to state "pool betting". We are deleting "betting activity" but we are not including "pool betting". That is my point. We are not saying that a person cannot get a licence for pool betting. I just want to tease this out.

I made a point regarding the definitions of "betting". This is a recurring theme I come back to. If I am trying to interpret this, a "bet" means a payment made to participate in betting. That is fair enough. What is the definition of "betting"? It says "betting" includes "pool betting", but I still do not have a definition of "betting". A definition of "betting" which is "betting includes pool betting". I do not understand what that means, for a start. We all have an understanding of "betting" but it is not me or the Minister of State who is going to try to find ways around this. There was a very clear definition in the original scheme. It was about a wager being offered for an event that had not taken place, that was to occur in the future and that the individual placing the wager was not a participant in the event. It was very clear. Sometimes in legislation, I understand that the more clarity provided, the more wriggle room is given to people to try to find a way around it. However, this seems extremely loose. This legislation repeals all the other pieces of legislation. If I looked at it I would not be able to find what a "bet" is. Other words such as "game", "lottery", "skill", "chance" and "future event" are defined but "bet" is not in this legislation.

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