Regulators are looking to split responsibility for gambling ad complaints as the State prepares a new regime to oversee betting in the Republic.
A law passed shortly before the last Oireachtas was dissolved created the new Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland, which is likely to begin work midway through next year.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said on Tuesday that it had agreed a system to streamline complaints about gambling ads with the new regulator.
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The Gambling Regulation Act 2024 bars betting businesses from advertising on television between 5.30am and 9pm every day, along with other restrictions. According to Orla Twomey, chief executive of the ASA, the gambling regulator will deal with complaints alleging breaches of the TV watershed and other obligations imposed by the new law.
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Complaints relating to “a breach of the ASA code of standards but not related to the Gambling Regulation Act” would be a matter for the advertising authority, she added.
The ASA is the advertising industry’s self-regulating body, responsible for enforcing standards on advertisers, agencies, direct marketing companies, the media, cinema and outdoors. Ms Twomey pointed out that the authority aimed to ensure ads were legal, decent and honest.
It recently agreed to collaborate with the Irish Film Classification Office and struck a co-operation agreement with statutory online and media overseer Coimisiún na Meán.
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Ms Twomey added that by joining forces with the new betting regulator, the authority would ensure “that the public can easily access information on responsible gambling advertising”.
Anne-Marie Caulfield, the new gambling regulator’s chief executive designate, said the organisation aimed to quickly address any public concerns about gambling advertising by working with the ASA. She noted that the Gambling Regulation Act included “restrictions on licences in relation to advertising, social media and more”.
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