Problem Gambling Ireland Annual Report - 2017

I am delighted to release our Annual Report for 2017 (opens in a new window).  
Special thanks to the Community Foundation for Ireland for funding the development of this report. 

Key Achievements in 2017 (summarised):

• Website: Website traffic more than doubled, year on year, compared to 2016.  This meant an increase from 11,169 unique visitors to 25,675.  
  
• Awareness Raising: Media engagements included: Clare FM, The Journal, RTE Liveline, The Irish Daily Mail, The
  Last Word, The Times Ireland, Newstalk Breakfast, The Irish Times, WLR, RTE Six One, Kildare FM, Ocean FM, Midwest Radio, Flourish Magazine, Near FM, Irish Examiner.  
  
• Helpline: Our helpline service, which operates on a ‘call-back’ basis, due to limited resources, had 1,007 engagements in 2017. These were quite evenly split between phone calls and email/text message/direct messages (on social media). Roughly half of these engagements were from concerned persons, with the other half coming from people with gambling problems.
  
• Gambling Harm-Prevention Talks: We delivered talks in a variety of settings around the country, including secondary schools, GAA clubs and Colleges. Young people are a high-risk group for developing gambling problems. We would like to thank the following for inviting us to speak: DIT Bolton Street; Colaiste Muire, Ennis; UCD Social Innovation Bootcamp; ‘We Need to Talk About Gambling’ Conference (Dublin); Presentation College Cork (Parents
  Committee); Freshford GAA Club; Sarsfields GAA Club; Athlone IT; Trinity College.
  
• Training Delivery: Our one-day training course, Foundation in Problem Gambling Assessment & Brief Interventions, was accredited by the Nursing & Midwifery Board of Ireland for Continuing Education Units, in June 2017. We delivered the course to staff at Ballyfermot Local Drug & Alcohol Task Force and Dublin Simon Community, later in the year.
  
• Research: Senior Sophister Trinity College Business Students of Social Innovation and Social Impact surveyed 514 secondary school students (4th, 5th and 6th Year) in four schools.  They found that 67% of students surveyed had already gambled and that 75% stated they had faced no restrictions in relation to their age, when accessing gambling services.    [It is worth noting that the Trinity students had difficulty accessing 6th Year students for their survey, due to Leaving Certificate preparations – and most survey participants were from 4th and 5th Year.  
• Research: In September 2017, we attended the Transition Year Expo in Kildare. At the Expo, we conducted a gambling behaviour and attitudes survey of 240 Transition Year students.  97% of the students were aged 16 or younger. Roughly half (52.5%) of the students stated that they had already gambled.  Of those students who had gambled, the most popular form of gambling was scratch cards (59.7%). It is also worth noting the popularity of race-track betting, in third place at 34.5%.  There is currently no age limit for Tote betting in Ireland. We urge the government to remedy this situation as soon as possible.
  
• Funding: Problem Gambling Ireland received €20,000 in grant funding from Social Entrepreneurs Ireland in 2017.  We also received €2,700 in funding from the Sisters of Mercy Solidarity Trust Fund, in order to deliver a pilot family programme (which was delivered in 2018).  We generated an additional €1,150 in traded income.  Further details of our finances are available in the Annual Report.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our service-users, volunteers, funders, friends and supporters and wish all of you a happy and healthy 2019.  

Barry Grant
CEO, Problem Gambling Ireland