McNulty: Executive parties saying one thing and doing another on gambling

He was speaking after Executive parties passed a regulation liberalising gambling rules on the same day as supporting an all-party motion on tackling gambling harm, with no action on gambling harm promised in either the Programme for Government or Legislative Programme.

On the morning of 28 January, the Executive parties voted through the Gaming (Variation of Monetary Limits) Order (Northern Ireland) 2025, which increased stakes and prizes in betting in registered clubs, with only the SDLP Opposition and smaller parties opposing the measure.

Later in the afternoon, the Assembly debated a non-binding motion on the need for a public health approach to gambling harm, despite the clear contradiction in the two pieces of business.

A party statement said that despite further gambling legislation being promised by the previous Communities Minister when she moved an earlier gambling reform Bill in 2021, “there is so far no Executive commitment to take any legislative action to tackle gambling harm for the rest of this mandate”.

Justin McNulty MLA said: “The Executive parties are saying one thing and doing another on gambling harm. On the same day that the Executive pushed through a regulatory change actually increasing stakes and prizes that potentially causes more harm from gambling, the Executive parties also hypocritically voted through a motion lamenting the public health impact of gambling harm in the North.

“This is either incompetence or an insult to the intelligence of the public. While we wait years for further action to be taken on gambling, lives will be lost and relationships and families will be destroyed.

“If the Executive parties take this issue as seriously as they say, they should commit to legislation being delivered in the Programme for Government. And, incredibly, it is worth noting, more than 2.5 years since the Assembly Election, we still do not have a Programme for Government.”