This week, the Irish Health Research Council released a report on the prevalence of gambling, which covers the 2014-2018 period. According to experts, this indicates that the government is not in a hurry to adopt new gambling legislation.

In the course of the study, 7005 Irish residents aged 15 years and older were interviewed in the period from August 2014 to August 2018. The definition of “gambling” in this context includes everything from lottery tickets, casinos, free slots games online, betting terminals and races to playing bingo and card games with family or friends.

About 64.5% of respondents admitted that they had been gambling in one form or another during the previous 12 months, with 41.4% doing it every month. Lottery ranked first with 56.7% participation, followed by betting in bookmakers (15.3%), betting on horse racing and dog racing (12.7%) and playing cards for money with friends or family (7,8%).

Only 4.3% of respondents stated that they had been playing gambling online or on mobile in the previous 12 months, and another 3% said that they had participated in interactive lotteries. However, among those who participated in monthly gambling, online casino games scored the highest percentage (24.5%), while bets on online / mobile sports ranked third (12.1%).

Irish media have paid special attention to the fact that almost a quarter of young people aged 15–17 have been playing some form of gambling during the previous 12 months. Although these young people seemed to be quite experienced in accessing land lottery products (9.7%), horse racing betting (9.4%), over-the-counter rates in bookmakers (5.8%) and even games in casinos (2.1%), only 0.9% gamble online or from a mobile phone.

For all respondents who spent more than €250 on gambling in the previous 12 months, lottery products are leading with 11.2%. They are followed by sports betting at bookmakers and free slots games online (3.9%), horse racing bets (1.8%) and online / mobile bets (1.4%).

About 0.8% of respondents showed signs of problems with gambling, and men (1.4%) were significantly ahead of women (0.2%). Young respondents showed a higher prevalence of gambling problems, with the highest rate (1.5%) falling on the age group 25-34, in which gender inequality was even higher (2.9% men, 0.2% women). Probably Irish government will consider face ID for the users of gambling establishments.