An addiction treatment centre in Limerick has reported a "frightening" rise in problems created by online gambling during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Michael Guerin, a senior counsellor at Cuan Mhuire, said the centre has experienced a 50% increase in the number of people contacting them for help in recent months.
Meanwhile recent figures on adolescent gambling habits from the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs for 2019 showed that Irish 16-year-olds have significantly higher rates of slot machine use, sports and animal betting and participation in lotteries than their European counterparts.
Tony O'Reilly is the author of Tony 10 and a former gambling addict who now works as an addiction counsellor.
He joined us on The Last Word along with Harry McCann, director of Trendster Media, to discuss this issue.
