Private operators of the National Lottery have opened on average more than 50 new outlets every month over the past three years, prompting fears of a surge in problem gambling.
The number of retailers authorised to sell Lotto draw tickets and scratch cards has risen from 3,700 to 5,790 – more than a 50 per cent jump – since a Canadian-controlled consortium was awarded the franchise in November 2014.
Premier Lotteries Ireland (PLI), owned by a large Toronto-based pension fund with a minority stake by former State operators An Post, plans to add a further 320 retailers to its rapidly expanding National Lottery network over the next two years.
Barry Grant, an addiction counsellor and chief executive of charity Problem Gambling Ireland, warned the expansion, which has been mainly focused on rural areas, could have a knock-on effect.
“The lottery draw tickets are for the most part at the lower end of the gambling harm scale, but scratch cards are a totally different ball game,” he said. “There is that instant gratification thing with them, so it is much closer to the hardcore gambling of slot machines, where there is an instant hit.
“They are much more harmful and addictive than the lottery draw, and the vast majority of scratch card purchases are impulse buys. So if you put them in as many places as possible then you get much more impulse buying.”
He said scratch cards could feed into a bigger gambling problem for some or could be the main issue for others.
“I’ve counselled clients who were spending hundreds every week on scratch cards, more than they could afford, more than they were earning sometimes,” said Mr Grant. “Some people would have been getting into debt over it.”
‘Relentless advertising’
He said he was concerned by the “all guns blazing” growth of the National Lottery in recent years, and what he described as “relentless advertising”.
"We are the biggest gamblers in Europe, the biggest online gamblers on the planet, we have the third biggest gambling losses in the world, the highest gambling losses in Europe. So we are ripe for the picking," he warned.
Mr Grant accepted the lottery created a huge amount of money for good causes, but added “it also has remit to generate as much profit as possible for the owners”.
Miriam Donohoe, corporate communications manager with PLI, said the National Lottery's objective was to "make it as convenient as possible" for people to play and in turn raise money for good causes all over Ireland.
“We want a lot of people to play our games – but to spend little. Nearly 30 cent in every euro from National Lottery sales goes back to communities and organisations in the areas of sport, health, youth, arts, culture, heritage and the Irish language.”
Ms Donohoe said there were “very strong, strict player controls”, and retailers were trained to spot “if the lottery is having a negative impact on customers”.
Problem customers can be steered towards organisations like Problem Gambling Ireland for help if necessary.
Since December it has been mandatory for all authorised retailers to sign up to a code of practice. Seven out of 10 retailers have taken up training on a recently launched online portal.
Player protections
“The National Lottery is committed to operating at all times in a socially responsible way, and the expansion of our retail network in no way alters our commitment to player protections,” said Ms Donohoe.
Last September PLI reported a rise in its operating profits of 121 per cent to €16.4 million during 2016, on the back of a 12 per cent jump in turnover to €750 million. Draw-based games, like the main twice-weekly draw and the Friday EuroMillions draw, took in sales of nearly €530 million, while sales from scratch cards and online instant win games rose to a record €220 million.
More than €225 million went to good causes, up from €213 million the previous year.