Irish punters spend more than €3.6 billion on gambling last year
Thursday 31st May 2007
According to research presented to a conference in Dublin on Tuesday, the amount of money being spent on gambling in Ireland has soared over the past five years.
The research showed that more than €3.6 billion is known to have been spent by gamblers last year, compared to €1.6 billion five years ago. However, experts said that this new figure represents only a fraction of the total amount spent, as it did not take into account gambling via the Internet or in casinos.
International estimates would suggest that around 40,000 people in the Republic have a gambling problem but the experts behind the latest figures said that this is likely to be an underestimate given the high expenditure.
