Matthew O'Toole accuses Executive parties of 'saying one thing and doing another' on gambling

On Tuesday, the Assembly decided to give the go-ahead for higher stakes and prizes on the likes of gaming machines – but there aren’t the same checks on the industry as in the rest of the UK. It was opposed by the TUV and SDLP.

Opposition leader Matthew O’Toole of the SDLP highlighted an apparent contradiction between a vote on a non-binding motion on the need for a public health approach to gambling harm – and support for the liberalised new rules on stakes and prizes.

He said that despite further gambling legislation being promised by the previous communities minister there is so far no Executive commitment to take any legislative action to tackle gambling harm for the rest of this mandate.

Mr O’Toole MLA said Executive parties “are inviting the contempt of citizens by saying one thing and doing one another on gambling harm. This morning the Executive pushed through a regulatory change actually increasing stakes and prizes, and then in the afternoon Executive parties blithely voted through a motion lamenting the public health impact of gambling harm in Northern Ireland.

“This is either incompetence or contempt for the public and for our collective role as legislators. While we wait years to take further action on gambling, lives will be lost. If the Executive parties take this issue as seriously as they say, they should commit to legislation being delivered before the end of this mandate in the PfG.”

But the communities minister Gordon Lyons – who backed the changes – said the new rules would help tackle problem gambling. He also said “considerable progress” had been made since the Assembly first discussed the measures.

The TUV said NI had five times the prevalence of people affected by problem gambling compared to England – and a new Gambling Levy coming into effect later this year in Great Britain won’t apply here.