Irish Examiner view: Proposed new gambling legislation is welcome
![Irish Examiner view: Proposed new gambling legislation is welcome Irish Examiner view: Proposed new gambling legislation is welcome](/cms_media/module_img/7573/3786658_16_articlesmall_gamling_1_.jpg)
The ESRI's data suggests the number of people in Ireland affected by problem gambling is far greater than had been estimated.
The possibility of collecting easy money can be very difficult to resist. In another field — though one with no little resemblance to gambling — the trial began this week in the US of Sam Bankman-Fried for defrauding people through his crypto empire.
Whether there is a substantive difference between crypto speculation and backing horses remains to be seen.
The Government has proposed gambling reforms which are set to introduce strict curbs on advertising, as well as a social impact fund for industry to fund problem gambling initiatives. Those measures are sorely needed.
This newspaper reported this week that Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport, and Media Catherine Martin led a delegation to the Ryder Cup which included her husband, Green Party TD Francis Noel Duffy, an assistant secretary general, the principal officer who heads the major sports events division of the department, the minister’s policy adviser, and her private secretary.
![Sending senior civil servants to learn from the experience of those who hosted this year's Ryder Cup makes sense but Catherine Martin will be aware that the optics of her trip to Italy will raise eyebrows. File picture: PA Sending senior civil servants to learn from the experience of those who hosted this year's Ryder Cup makes sense but Catherine Martin will be aware that the optics of her trip to Italy will raise eyebrows. File picture: PA](https://www.irishexaminer.com/cms_media/module_img/7573/3786631_18_articleinline_2.73040445.jpg.jpg)
![US president Joe Biden and Jill Biden with Commander at Christmas 2021 when the dog was three months old. Picture: Carolyn Kaster/AP US president Joe Biden and Jill Biden with Commander at Christmas 2021 when the dog was three months old. Picture: Carolyn Kaster/AP](https://www.irishexaminer.com/cms_media/module_img/7573/3786511_28_articleinline_2.64499225.jpg.jpg)
US president Joe Biden’s dog Commander has left the White House with immediate effect and under something of a cloud.