NEW REGULATION SET to be imposed on the UK’s biggest bookmakers will not make its way across the water to Ireland.

Speaking to TheJournal.ie, a spokesperson for Paddy Power said,”At the moment there is no plan to introduce anything in Ireland. The new measures are very much based on the situation in the UK how it stands at the moment. Advertisement is different in different territories.”

The new measures will be self imposed by William Hill, Ladbrokes, Paddy Power and Coral and will serve to regulate how the firms advertise themselves.

The bookmakers will introduce the new measures in two rounds over the next six months.

From the start of next month the four companies will implement:

• A voluntary ban on advertising sign-up offers (usually involving free bets and free money) on television before the watershed at nine o’clock.
• Withdrawal of advertising gaming machines in betting shop windows.
• Dedicating 20% of shop window advertising to responsible gambling messages.

These measures will be followed in January by the creation of of an independent body called The Senet Group. The group will be headed by a independent Standards Commissioner.

In a statement on the new measures issued today, Gala Coral Group CEO Carl Leaver said:

I am proud of the fact that we are taking a lead on this issue. Millions of people get a great deal of enjoyment from our products and the service that we provide. The right to have a bet is an important freedom and must be balanced by our responsibility to protect vulnerable people.

As part of these new efforts the group plan to fund a major advertising campaign promoting responsible gambling.

The initiatives will initially only apply to the four companies involved but other UK bookmakers have been invited to join the initiative.

Related: There’s a new man in the saddle at Paddy Power

Also: Canny punters give Paddy’s profits a €34 million kicking