Proposals to ban gambling advertisements until after the watershed are about 20 years too late.
That's according to clinical psychologist Mark Smyth, who was speaking following recommendations from the Oireachtas Justice Committee.
It is estimated that some 3,500 15 and 16-year-olds are engaged in problem gambling in Ireland.
A ban on advertising by betting companies before 9.00pm has been recommended by the Justice Committee.
It also recommends evaluating the link between high-profile sports personalities, and their influence on betting trends in young people.
And it wants automated software to verify a customer's age - as well as background checks - when people register for accounts to see if they are financially vulnerable.
But Mark told The Pat Kenny Show it is likely too late for an advert ban now.
"My thinking is this might have been an effective piece maybe 15, 20 years ago when teenagers consumption of media was predominantly through TV.
"If I ask a young person now what they watch on TV, usually they'll say 'nothing' - because they don't see traditional TV as where they get their entertainment.
"They get it through Netflix or they get it online".
He also believes gambling sponsorship of sports teams is the issue.
"Nine of the current Premiership teams are sponsored by betting companies.
"So we see it on their shirts, we see it on their stadiums.
"So even if you ban an ad before 9 o'clock, if they start watching a game at 7.45, they're still going to be exposed to ads and to sporting ads endorsed by their favourite football teams.
"Or they go into Lifestyle Sports, or another shop, they buy a jersey and it's right over the front of it".
And Mark says the research we have has to be updated.
"So far we're reliant on UK data in relation to the extent of both gambling, or problematic gambling, of young people in Ireland.
"So if we're going to evaluate the effectiveness of any new limitations that we put in, we need to know what the baseline is so we can measure effectiveness.
"So we need good research, we need to establish baseline data in Ireland before we can sure about the extent of the problem here."
