On Wednesday, presenter Ryan Tubridy broadcast live from the Cheltenham Festival. The broadcast featured an interview with Paddy Power. During a ten-minute segment after the 9:30 am news, Mr. Tubridy interviewed Mr. Power about the recently announced departure of the bookmaker’s co-founder, David Power, from its board of directors, as well as about Paddy Power’s history of “mischievous” and sometimes quite controversial marketing stunts.
Yesterday’s broadcast was slammed for failing to mention that it was sponsored by the gambling company. In a statement from later on Wednesday, a spokeswoman for RTÉ defended the programme by saying that it is a usual practice for it to take sponsorship for outside broadcasts and to interview its sponsors.
She went on to say that during a broadcast from last week, which was too sponsored by Paddy Power, Mr. Tubridy pointed out that their Cheltenham broadcast would feature an interview with Paddy Power. The RTÉ spokeswoman explained that they have been approached by the gambling company and that it has paid for the production team’s trip to Cheltenham and has sponsored the broadcast from the popular horse racing festival.
The talk radio show was also criticized for including an interview with a gambling company on its programme without featuring a message encouraging people to gamble responsibly. The RTÉ pointed out that the interview was not intended to advertise Paddy Power’s products and services and was thus not regulated by the gambling advertising code that requires all gambling-oriented marketing communications to contain such a message.
She further stressed that every time The Ryan Tubridy Show features content involving its broadcast sponsors it makes sure that it is fully compatible with the theme of the broadcast.
Barry Grant, Chief Executive of the Problem Gambling Ireland charity organization, was among the critics of RTÉ’s failure to inform listeners that the content featured on yesterday’s broadcast was sponsored by a gambling company.
Problem Gambling Concerns
Earlier this week, Fianna Fáil, the Republican Party of Ireland, called on bookmakers to introduce an obligatory limit to the amount of money that gambling customers can wager online. The limit should prevent people from losing enormous amounts and to limit the risks that gambling activities pose to vulnerable customers.
Last week, Paddy Power’s co-founder, Steward Kenny, voiced a similar opinion, arguing that bookmakers might not be doing enough to address the growing issue of problem gambling. He too suggested the implementation of a mandatory limit as well as a cooling-off period during which no changes in the limit could be made. Mr. Kenny was among the founders of the Irish gambling giant in the late 1980s and occupied the CEO post until 2002. He then remained a board member until the summer of 2016 when he announced his departure.
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