Not satisfied with an annual turnover of €3.4 billion - achieved in 2006 and up from €2.6 billion in 2005 - shop bookmakers in the South have been actively lobbying the government to allow the introduction of slot machines onto their premises.
These grotesque contraptions are clearly and undeniably linked to gambling addiction and, by their very nature, are aimed at the most vulnerable in our society. Successful efforts to curb their availability in Dublin, supported by Socialists, are well documented.
The petitioning of the last goverment by the major bookmakers failed because of strong opposition by the then Minister for Justice, but Michael McDowell mellowed on the issue when he became leader of the Progressive Democrats.
Since then, the bookmakers have stepped up the pressure and Ladbrokes (their profits in Ireland jumped by 84 per cent in just the first six months of this year) were among those to buy a table in the Fianna Fail tent at the Galway Races.
The tell-tale signs are there that the bookmakers believe that Bertie Ahern is about to give them the green light: Ladbrokes have told their staff of the imminent installation of the machines in their 200 shops here; another outfit William Hill have actually had the pin-sockets for the machines put in and Boylesports are buying premises bigger than normal to accommodate the “slots”.
One of the main beneficiaries of, and apologists for, slot machines is Ivan Yates, the former Fine Gael Minister for Agriculture who owns Celtic Bookmakers along with his wife Deirdre Boyd.
A particularly interesting and cunning device being employed is that the bookmakers no longer use the term “slot machines”. Nowadays, they call them FOBT's (or Fixed Odds Betting Terminals) and the members of the IBA (Irish Bookmakers Association) have employed RTE television soccer anchorman Bill O'Herlihy to do a public relations job for them.
O'Herlihy owns O'Herlihy Communications, a Dublin 4 PR firm, with substantial government contracts, including one with the Sports Council and the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism.
The sufferer’s when slot machines appear in betting shops will not be the denizens of Ballsbridge but those in working-class areas who are the favourite target for the fat-cat bookies.
There are now 1,078 bookmaker shops in the Republic, most of these being in working-class estates. In the Betting Act of 1931, which still pertains, it is expressly forbidden to situate a betting shop in a residential area!
