Paddy Power and other bookmakers have been criticised for taking bets on video game competitions that are popular with children and teenagers.
Websites are offering odds on multiplayer games such as Overwatch and Counter-Strike. Overwatch is a first-person shooter with cartoon-like visuals and is accompanied by online comics and short animated films. Counter-Strike players take on the roles of terrorists and counter-terrorist forces in battles for the control of cities.
Barry Grant, chief executive of Problem Gambling Ireland, said that offering these bets blurred the lines between online gambling and playing games.
“It’s a perfect fit for the gambling industry really, people who like to spend a lot of time in front of their screens are the perfect candidates for spending their money on gambling,” Mr Grant said.
Mr Grant referred to research by H2 Gambling Capital, a consultancy company, which found that Irish people spent more money per head on online gambling than any other country in the world. In total, Irish gamblers lost more than €1 billion online last year.
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Eoin Murphy, a psychotherapist who mentors people with addictions, said 13-year-olds were using their parents’ credit cards to open online accounts.
“Betting on video games is exposing teenagers to gambling at too young an age,” he said.
Mr Murphy said that teenagers were more likely to gamble online than drink or take drugs and that they were transferring their addictions into online games. He said that taking betting on games such Overwatch was effectively grooming children into gambling.
Paddy Power, which recently merged with Betfair, recorded profits of €152 million across its online divisions in 2015. It is offering a €30 free bet if a new customer bets €10 on Counter-Strike.
Luke Cotton, 26, runs CSGObetting.com, which gives betting advice on Counter-Strike, and said Paddy Power’s promotion was one of the most generous in the video game market. Mr Cotton began betting online at 16 and was later hired by Paddy Power to develop its online video game markets.
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Some of the best teams in Counter-Strike are professional and attract tens of thousands of fans to stadiums to watch games. Others are semi-professional and play for smaller amounts.
Mr Cotton said that some of the teams were sponsored by online gambling companies and wore their logos on team shirts. Competitive video gaming, also known as esports, is one of the fastest growing markets in gambling. “I’ve been betting on esports since day one. The first company to do it was in 2007,” Mr Cotton said.
As a 20-year-old student, he approached about 50 bookmakers to start an esports gambling platform. Paddy Power was one of the few to show an interest and was the first major betting company to tap into the video game industry, he said. In the early days there was not much money in video game betting. “Times have changed. There is a lot of money in it now.”
Colm O’Rourke, the former Meath Gaelic footballer and principal of St Patrick’s Classical School in Navan, said he had sent a letter to parents warning them about the dangers of gambling.
“The research internationally and nationally, and what we feel is apparent in our school, is that there is a sharp rise in the number of young people gambling online and in bookies’ offices,” Mr O’Rourke said.
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Paddy Power said that betting on the outcome of Counter-Strike and other online video games was only intended for adults.
“It is illegal to offer to, or take bets from, anybody who is under 18 years of age. Paddy Power Betfair firmly adheres to this legal obligation,” it said.
Ladbrokes said that esports was a niche market and that it had controls in place to avoid underage gambling.
Behind the story
Paddy Power and BoyleSports buckled to public and political pressure last June to stop taking bets on school sports.
Paddy Power Betfair and other companies that operate online had offered a large spread of betting options on school rugby, such as winning margin and number of tries scored as well as the result. They also offered markets on underage GAA, which the association itself raised concerns about.
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Michael Ring, the former minister for sport, said that promoting gambling on school sports was outrageous. “We’ve gone too far with the connection between betting and sport if this is seen as fair game,” he said.
The Institute of Public Health had also expressed concerns that taking bets on school games exposed teenagers to gambling.
Justin Campbell, an addiction counsellor, former Galway hurler and member of the GAA’s health and wellness committee, said that there was a clear contradiction in the betting industry opening markets on games played by those who cannot legally bet.
“If we consider why you are not allowed to have a bet until you are 18, it makes no sense to allow under-18 matches to be targeted by bookmakers,” he said.
New laws to tackle access to underage gambling and advertising are expected to be included in a bill this summer.