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Why Sports Bodies Should Tackle Online Betting Fast

Major sporting organizations have been urged to curb the scourge of online betting as the addiction is becoming rampant among young players. Patrick O’Donovan, Irish Sports Minister has urged Olympic Council of Ireland, IRFU and FAI to raise a strategy through which they will curb the rampant addiction in young players.

While the scourge has been noticed among young players in Ireland, the problem is not peculiar to Ireland alone. The scourge has taken over not only young players but a lot of youth all over the world. It is believed to have started among GAA players but now it is spreading to other sports.

In the past few months, several cases of addiction involving well known players have been heard. In fact several players have spent all they have earned, sold all their assets and still in debt of over €80,000. The problem is not the debt but the fact that these players are still into gambling.

Some other players are not in such a big debt but they are not financially sound too. As a way of curbing the scourge, Gaelic Players Association helped about 74 players out of their gambling addiction last year and their door is still open to any player who requires such help.

It is important for other sports organizations to follow suit as the help from only Gaelic Players Association may not be enough considering the rate at which the scourge is spreading. So a drastic step has to be taken.

There are several young people who are hooked and can’t seem to get out of it. Besides, there are notable personalities who have had the courage to speak out about their betting addictions and their experience is not pleasant at all. Although the scourge may not have reached a critical point yet, it will soon get there if care is not taken.

This is why this is the best time for sports organizations to draw up plans on the steps to take tackle this scourge early in the year before the entire sports gets consumed by this “disease”. To underscore O’Donovan’s fears, a joint study by Department of Social Protection and UCD showed that over 40,000 people are already struggling with gambling addiction and as much as €5bn is spent on gambling every year. The worst part is that the figure will continue to grow if nothing is done fast.

It takes two to tango. Helping the addicted players may just be half of the solution. As long as these betting outfits continue to thrive, the scourge can never be eliminated. After all what the gamblers lose is their gain. It is in their interest that more players gamble themselves into debt. Every business prays for more profit. So, the other half of the solution is to tax these betting outfits heavily. It will help to curb their activities. And a lot of the tax received from them should be used to help players in debt.