Invitations to gamble shouldn’t be projected on city streets, say councillors

On 3 December, a purple sign projected onto the pavement of Dorset Street Upper showed symbols of playing cards and the words: “Welcome to PowerslotCasino, free join membership, Get €10 match bet.”

Green Party Councillor Janet Horner and independent Councillor Vincent Jackson both say they’ve seen similar projections in other parts of the city.

Dublin City Council really needs to clamp down on this kind of advertising, they say.

“I walked from the Mansion House back up to Francis Street last Sunday evening,” says Jackson. “There was another one, I have to say, projected onto the footpath, like down on the ground, and I was walking by, and I said, Jesus, how did that happen?”

Horner says there are so many other gambling facilities on Dorset Street too. “If you have any issues with gambling, you really are being bombarded with images and advertising and incentives to gamble”

“It’s very invasive and very in your face,” says Tony O’Reilly, a gambling addiction counsellor who is in recovery himself, speaking in general about gambling adverts projected onto the street. “It can be quite dangerous.”

On-street advertising is more problematic than the adverts online or on TV in his view.

 “I think there is a problem of young people seeing it,” he says. 

Gambling facilities should also never be allowed to advertise free bets, says O’Reilly. 

New regulations are set to come into effect next year to govern gambling, including outdoor advertising like billboards, and a new regulatory authority will issue licences for in-person gambling facilities.

A spokesperson for the Department of Justice says that the new Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland will take signage into account for licensing, including renewing licences for existing premises.

What about planning?

There is no planning application on the council planning database for a projecting sign at 54 Dorset Street Upper.

Former council planner Kieran Rose says he thinks the projection of an advertisement onto the public footpath requires planning permission.

The owners of Powerslot Casino haven’t responded to queries sent via staff in the shop, Facebook and to their accountants, about whether they believe the sign needs planning permission.

Paddy Power bookies, further along the street at 93 Dorset Street, was granted planning permission to revamp its shop front and applied for a projecting sign, which was refused, and it doesn’t display one. 

The planners knocked it back “in the interests of visual amenity”, it says. 

Horner, the Green Party councillor, says she previously pushed council officials to clamp down on the unauthorised banners in front of bookies which advertised betting on big sports events. 

Now she wants to add tackling illuminated and projected signs to the list, she said. 

On the south side of the city, meanwhile, Green Party Councillor Michael Pidgeon, opposed a proposed casino in Dolphin’s Barn.

“You should be able to go to the shops and not be bombarded with this,” says Pidgeon. 

He also pushed to have the opening of new slot machine facilities restricted in the city development plan, he says.

The plan contains a “presumption against adult shops, betting shops and gaming arcades in proximity to residential areas, places of public worship and schools”, and restricts an “excessive concentration of such uses” in other areas.

Despite that restriction, Jackson, the independent councillor, says he’s seriously concerned about a proposal for a new gambling facility in Ballyfermot Road. 

He says he is objecting as it’s near multiple schools, so he hopes council planners will refuse it.

“I'm going to be honest, it would make a lot of money, but the money it'll make, it'll create it on the back of the misery of people,” says Jackson. 

“I know what I'm talking about, I had a brother years ago who was addicted to those poker machines, and it was just soul-destroying looking at him, putting his money in every single Friday.”

“He'd work for the week, he'd have nothing,” says Jackson, “and I mean nothing.”

New regulations

New gambling advertising rules are set to come into effect soon, and should in theory curb excessive on-street advertising.

“We plan to open for phase 1 licensing in the next few weeks,” says a spokesperson for the new Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland. 

Once it is operational, the authority is tasked with issuing licences to companies that offer gambling products. Once licensed, these companies will be bound by new rules. 

A spokesperson for the Department of Justice said that the Gambling Regulation Act 2024 is a public-health measure aimed at protecting people from gambling harm, including younger people and those who are vulnerable.

The new Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland will oversee “tight restrictions on the advertisement of gambling activities”, they said. 

It will decide when and where gambling advertising can be broadcast, displayed or published, and specify the frequency and the duration of adverts, they said. 

“This power will allow the Authority to address the issue of gambling advertising on social media, online and on traditional media such as on television, radio, websites, apps, in print, and outdoor advertising such as billboards, etc,” they said.

 The authority will begin its licensing and enforcement functions on a phased basis from early next year, they said. 

“Section 98 of the Act requires that persons applying for an in-person gambling licence must provide the Authority of details of their premises, including information concerning the size and location of external space, signs and lighting,” says the spokesperson. 

“This information will be considered by the Authority in determining whether to issue or renew a licence,” they said.