Researchers from multiple universities across Ireland and Northern Ireland have proposed for National Lottery live draws to be broadcasted after 9pm.
Dr Frank Houghton, a lead gambling researcher at the Technological University of the Shannon (TUS), has taken to media outlets to propagate the findings of a joint analysis between his university and colleagues from the University College Cork, Queen’s University Belfast, and University of Limerick.
In it, focused observations were applied to more than 200 cases of live draws between 2023 and 2024. The results showed that the majority of the presentations occurred prior to 9pm on Wednesdays and Saturdays, often airing during or right after family-friendly rated programming.
Making an appearance on Live95’s Limerick Today, Houghton further added: “I’ve always been dumbstruck by how you can stop a Saturday evening family film and do what is effectively a gambling draw while all the kids are sitting there.”
Houghton has argued that this should constitute enough evidence to recognise that there is a risk of exposing children to gambling, and with that directly putting to question the National Lottery’s exclusion from the pre-9pm advertising ban applicable to private bookmakers.
“It is exposing underage children to gambling advertising, which we feel is a real problem,” he said, speaking on RTÉ’S Morning Ireland.
“There’s a lot of evidence out there which indicates that those who do gamble underage are more likely to become problematic gamblers in later life.”
Since 11 March, the National Lottery has been enforcing an official policy where the draws are shown immediately before the RTÉ Nine O’Clock News, with the Office of the Regulator of the National Lottery saying this is “fully compliant with all applicable regulatory and licensing requirements”.
However, Houghton and his fellow researchers have maintained that this is not enough, with the former concluding one of his media appearances with the following statement: “I have noticed that the nine o’clock news sometimes strays earlier than nine. It needs to be a hard and fast rule: it never appears before nine, and ideally, it should be after the news.”