Irish governmental ministers had huge unbreakable smiles on their faces yesterday. It had nothing to do with the announcement that Thierry Henry was to give his World Cup bonus to an Irish hardship fund thanks to a leprechaun attack, or that there were reports of a pint of Guinness for every countryman. Neither of those. It was because the long-awaited report into the gambling industry was published.
Entitled “Options for Regulating Gambling” the consultation paper has been widely championed, especially by Justice Minister Dermot Ahern. Today comes the inevitable backlash from the guys who knew nothing about it. Ministers from the other parties have got wind of their championing and one especially has had his say on the matters.
Labour spokesman on justice, Pat Rabitte, opined that the report is “a ham-fisted report without direction of conclusions, for a sector that has been awaiting regulation for a very long time.”
He also attacked Mr Ahern on the point he made about a cross-party discussion on the issue not getting off the ground.
“Labour was never invited to join an all-party committee on this subject,” Mr Rabbitte told the Irish Times.
It all comes after we told you the finer points of the report in relation to online gambling in that firms wanting to operate will need an Irish license to take bets from Irish customers, they’re not going to go all French on us, and that they may consider ISP blocking.
As far as Mr Rabitte goes – it doesn’t look like Ham will on the menu this Christmas. Ahern might want to invest in some rabbit for the family trough on the 25th.
