Tony O’Reilly – from Carlow now works as a gambling addiction councillor. He is the author of the best-selling book Tony 10. It tells the story of Tony’s journey from a €1 bet to robbing millions from the post office, his time in prison and his eventual arrival as an educator and advocate on the dangers of gambling harm. He wants to talk about the upcoming release of the game Grand Thief Auto 6, due to be the largest game sale of all time. He has concerns about the game and wants to warn parents about buying the game for young people under 18 years old. With Grand Theft Auto VI due for release on 19 November, just weeks before Christmas, the Drug & Alcohol Task Forces are asking parents to look beyond the hype and consider an increasingly important question: where does gaming end and gambling begin? Australia has banned the online casino in GTA. Grand Theft Auto is one of the most successful entertainment franchises in the world and the new release will undoubtedly appear on Christmas lists across Ireland. However, the Task Force believes parents purchasing games for teenagers need to be aware of the growing overlap between video gaming, in-game spending and gambling-like experiences. This is not simply a theoretical concern. In 2019, GTA Online introduced the Diamond Casino & Resort, allowing players to enter a highly realistic virtual casino and participate in activities including roulette, blackjack, poker-style games and slot machines using virtual casino chips. The development attracted international attention, including from the BBC, and gambling functions were reportedly unavailable to players in a number of countries because of local gambling laws. The concern goes much wider than one game. Over the past decade researchers have examined the increasing presence in video games of loot boxes, microtransactions, randomised rewards, virtual currencies and simulated gambling. These features can introduce young players to some of the same psychological mechanisms found in gambling: staking something of value, anticipation, uncertain outcomes, near misses, rewards and the urge to try again. Research published in Royal Society Open Science involving 1,155 young people aged 16–18 found a moderate-to-large association between spending on loot boxes and problem gambling. A national study of 12–16-year-old gamers published in Addictive Behaviors also found a significant relationship between engagement with loot boxes and problem gambling severity.
