Bookmakers and other commercial gambling operations to be banned from making profits from the National Lottery by allowing bets on the end result of its draws

Public Expenditure Minister for the Republic of Ireland , Michael McGrath, has called for a ban on private bookmakers accepting bets on the National Lottery’s numbers.

The Minister raised concerns as he claims that bookmakers offering similar items under their own brand name is undermining the National Lottery and Euromillions and is misleading customers.

Mc Grath wrote to the Minister of State for Law Reform, James Browne, advising the prohibition of private operators from offering lottery betting as part of a commercial product range.

Although the national lottery interdicts activities such as the use of free bets, discounts and loyalty programmes linked to lottery betting, private companies are still selling them as a marketing tactic on their own lottery items.

Former Fine Gael legal adviser said: “It makes no sense to me that we should continue to allow those private organisations to profit from the Lotto and other products that are put in place by the National Lottery.”

The legislation will “make it an offence for a profit-driven bookmaker to hitch a free ride with the licensed and regulated National Lottery”.

Lottery betting accounts for about 8% of Ireland’s gaming revenue, amounting to around €400m in total turnover. 35% of the players betting are doing so because they can bet on the result.

The minister has plans to introduce a gambling regulator to keep an eye on the Irish betting Industry. He also outlined plans to crackdown on criminals using the regulated market for their own money laundering purposes.

In December 2020, the ‘Interim Gaming and Lotteries Act’ came into force. This has initiated extensive reform in the country’s gaming legislation.

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