Day: 17 August 2018

Ireland’s Department of Finance is considering the renewed calls for doubling the betting tax in the budget, in order to get more money for funding gambling addiction services. John Halligan, an Independent Alliance Minister, has urged the country’s Government to make sure the betting tax is increased from 1% to 2%. According to him and other proponents of the measure, such an increase would bring an additional annual revenue of €50 million for the exchequer. Mr. Halligan noted that there must be a guarantee that the extra €50 million would…

Australian researchers and psychiatrists have said that video games which encourage players to purchase so-called “loot boxes”, saying that such special items were very much like addictive poker machines. Experts also warned that video games offering such items could be quite addictive and could lead to massive losses. Today, a Senate inquiry initiated by the Greens Party senator Jordon Steele-John is set to start in Melbourne after being unanimously passed in June. The inquiry has already resulted in written submissions from both proponents and opponents of this form of gambling,…