OPINION: Gambling has always been with us - it's just that it's getting out of control

Gambling, let’s face it, never had the best of images.

The frittering away had earned money that could have been more wisely spent on other things is near impossible to justify.

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If it’s a choice between what we used to refer to as a loaf of bread and a wager on the bumper in Punchestown or the feeding of a hungry mouth and a wager on a maiden hurdle event in Naas, there is, so to speak, only one winner.

And it ain't the horse.

Gambling has always been with us.

The late Sean Lemass, the former Fianna Fáil Taoiseach and government minister and  who is credited with encouraging Ireland’s industrial development in the 1960s, was apparently quite fond of the horses.

Closer to home, the father of a famous author was also well partial to a bet on the horses.

Maura Laverty came from Rathangan and was born in 1907 and her dad, who died a relatively young man, lost a lot of money gambling.

Ms Laverty published several novels and short stories and one of her books was somewhat of a biography of the town and some people who lived in what was then a small village were less than pleased and it wasn’t well received locally at the time.

At this remove, a bet on the horses in those days seems almost quaintly innocent.

There were no smartphones, apps, television advertising of gambling. And the betting shops kept what might be termed civilised hours. There was no night time horseracing or at the weekends.

How much all that has changed though.

The Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland came into being earlier this year after a protracted passage through the Dáil and Seanad.

By the time the GRAI was set up some 11 years had passed since  the Fine Gael-Labour government had first proposed new gambling laws.

Its existence is necessary for a number of reasons chief among being the sheer scale of betting opportunities  that are out there and the ready access to a bookie. You can place a bat any hour, any minute of the day or night on a phone whereas in the past the bookie office had to  be open.

As the Irish Examiner reported in March, advocates had been crying out for well over a decade for Ireland’s gambling laws to be brought into the 21st century.

The previous legislation, drafted in the 1950s, hadn’t accounted for people having mobile phones that they’d have on them all the time that could double as a casino on their favourite gambling apps.

Prior to getting granted its full powers, the GRAI’s chief executive officer Anne Marie Caulfield and her team had enlisted the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) to examine just how bad Ireland’s problem with gambling was, and its findings only reinforced the need to have the sector regulated.

“The extent of problem gambling in Ireland was much higher than previously thought,” she said. “It was 10 times higher than had been previously thought.

“That figure of 3.1% [of people] demonstrating significant harm from gambling and then a further 7% had moderate levels [of harm]. And then the fact that 47% of turnover is actually attributed to those two categories from that ESRI study was worrying.”

Furthermore, she told the Irish Examiner, the evidence that children were twice as likely to become problem gamblers in later life if they bet before the age of 18 “really does justify clamping down very hard.”

There’s lots of money to make in gambling. Paddy Power has undergone exponential growth since it was founded in 1988. It’s listed on the stock exchanges now as Flutter Entertainment.

A single share will cost you about £202 sterling. It’s grown so much in value and Flutter has many enterprises in its stable, but part of this increase was achieved off the backs of people with gambling problems - although the bookies say they have no wish to encourage problem gambling.

At that price it's not easy to accept that the only way to make money gambling is to buy Paddy Power shares - but it’s probably true.