Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)

The Minister of State and I had a couple of debates on this on the floor and on radio. I acknowledge, as Deputy Daly said, that the serious concerns Sinn Féin brought forward have been acknowledged by the Minister of State, given there are so many amendments coming back to this House to fix this Bill. This would have caused serious problems for sporting organisations and charities across the State. All of our concerns regarding that part of the Bill have now been fixed with the amendments brought forward by the Minister of State. I do not say that to make the point that we were right but, rather, in the spirit of trying to make sure this Bill is appropriate. We need a proper gambling regulation Bill. I have stated it on numerous occasions but, to avoid any doubt, I am involved in a not-for-profit organisation and I am director of a local music festival. In raising money for that, we operate a lottery licence. This legislation will affect us and many of the people with whom we compete who operate outside of current regulations and will be dealt with.

There is still a serious issue with this Bill which I mention in the spirit of the issues I brought forward in the past. It relates to social media advertising, in particular the definition of "relevant content" in the section. As we are dealing with an administrative print of this Bill, the original and amendments, I ask that this be flagged when we come to sections 141 and 146. I would like to propose a verbal amendment to the Bill at that point to address the issue. In brief, under current legislation, a licensee can continue to advertise on social media as long as three things are applicable - that the person has signed up to the social media service, is a subscriber to the licensee's account on that service and in accordance with the applicable regulations. I will use Paddy Power as an example because it is well known, not that it is doing anything wrong. Paddy Power will be able to continue to advertise on social media if the recipient has an account with that person, for example, Paddy Power, the recipient has subscribed to the licensee's account on that service, for example, they liked the Facebook page, and in accordance with the applicable regulations. Those are the rules. The problem is the Bill states it has to advertise "relevant content". Paddy Power could not advertise on social media just targeting people who are account holders of Paddy Power. That is important because that will no longer happen as a result of this legislation and I am sure that is the Minister of State's intention. It states in this section that is "advertising relevant content", which is where the definition of relevant content is flawed. The definition in this section provides that "relevant content" means, in relation to advertising, "a relevant gambling activity, or in the case of a Business to Consumer gambling licence, the licensee of that gambling licence".

If Flutter Entertainment, the owner of Paddy Power, is the licensee, there is nothing in these regulations to stop Paddy Power from advertising Paddy Power or Paddy Power's logo or giving away ten free tickets. They are not allowed to advertise a gambling activity because that would be relevant content, but it will be able to advertise its logo, trademark and brand. That is not captured in the definition in this section. I would argue that is not the intention of the Minister of State. In section 145, which concerns how content delivered is defined, although it is a different section, it also refers to "Logo, trademark, emblem or marketing image of such a licensee." It refers to sporting events but I suggest through a verbal amendment to this Bill that the Minister of State include in the definition of "relevant content" not just how it is currently defined - the relevant gambling activity or the licensee of that gambling activity. The licensee does not capture the rest. The licensee may not be the brand name, logo or emblem. It may not even be the company. The intention is that a Paddy Power would not be allowed to advertise to the public saying, "Like this page for ten free tickets to Oasis." Once you like the page and subscribe to Paddy Power, which may be the conditions of entry, Paddy Power is free to advertise to you because you are then a subscriber and account holder. The definition of "relevant content" is not strong enough and will allow for issues which are otherwise dealt with in the Bill. In this section, "relevant content" is again defined for the purpose of the section. The definition includes the name of the licensee. If Paddy Power is the licensee, it is not allowed to put Paddy Power up but it would be allowed to put a logo up that does not have the name of Paddy Power. If Paddy Power is not the licensee - I can name numerous companies with a brand name and trading name that are different from the registered company name, the legal entity that will apply for the licence in respect of this. Other parts of the Bill also deal with the registration of licensees, which also include not only the licensee's name but the trading names under which they operate. I am sure the Minister of State's officials can point him in that direction to allow for an amendment that captures all of the intentions of previous sections of the Bill.

See this speech in context