Outdated legislation is contributing to an increase in gambling addiction with the odds stacked against poker and slot machine players.
Pat Kenny introduces a report on the legislation governing gaming machines.
The 1956 Act is accepted as being ludicrously outdated, rarely enforced and everywhere ignored.
The gaming trade is fighting the perception of arcades as shady and sleazy. For the gambler, these gaming arcades bring nothing but despair.
Dubliner Mary has a gambling problem and is not able to pass an arcade without going in for a bet.
In Wexford, unemployed James goes straight from the Labour Exchange to the arcade to gamble his dole.
Despite the amusing arcade names, there is the unfunny dark side of the gaming machine addict.
Mary Bolton, Senior Counsellor at the Rutland Centre describes how gambling affects people from all walks of life. From her experience, every gambler has seriously thought of killing themselves at some point.
There are working class people and there are professional people. I don't think that you could say that there's any particular kind of person.
The extraordinary thing about addiction to gaming machines is that people become addicted to machines made of metal and plastic. This addiction affects their social, personal and family lives and when the problem reaches peak, many speak of suicide. Phil Bates, Director of the Samaritans, describes the secret nature of the gambler who could end up losing everything.
The Samaritans take a lot of calls from compulsive gamblers at their wit's end.
Jimmy Cafolla, manager of the New Fun Palace in Dublin is aware that gaming arcades have a poor public image. He thinks people should come in and see the arcades for themselves.
They'd see that they're clean, well run and most of the customers are very respectable people.
While most players are not addicts and play for the fun of it, most machines are illegally fixed in the amount they payout.
Poker machines are the money spinners and the ones played most intently.
Arcade owners say that their payout is eighty to ninety per cent. However, seaside arcades tend to give very small payouts as their customers tend to be tourists passing through. The payout is set in advance by the owner who decides what percentage of the gambler's money to keep. There is no legal restriction on how large or small the cut should be.
This episode of 'Today Tonight' was broadcast on 6 February 1985. The reporter is Brendan O'Brien.
