It comes as the International Association of Gaming Advisors (IAGA) starts its 40th annual International Gaming Summit today at the Culloden hotel in Co Down.
Delegates paying up to $2,000 per ticket to attend the forum for the gambling machine industry.
But leading voices in Northern Ireland who combat gambling addiction have written an open letter to IAGA.
In it, they highlight how one in 50 people here suffer an addiction, according to a 2016 survey – with numbers now likely to be higher.
For each person directly affected at least another six friends and family will be negatively impacted.
Each year in the UK there are more than 400 gambling-related suicides.
The rate of gambling addiction in Northern Ireland is alarming — it is four times higher than in Great Britain and almost three times that in the Republic of Ireland.
A lack of effective regulation bears some of the blame.
There are simply no rules here governing online gambling, while those that relate to the highly addictive electronic gaming machines (EGMs, or fixed-odds betting terminals) are out-dated and are neither properly adhered to nor enforced.
The letter states: “While there is clearly an urgent need for legislation regulating online gaming and EGMs, the absence of a functioning legislative assembly means that those lured into gambling addiction and those around them will continue to pay a heavy price.
“Northern Ireland is a ‘grey market’, so-called because it sits somewhere between jurisdictions that explicitly allow and regulate gambling and black markets, where it is outlawed. Grey markets are attractive as they tend to be cheaper for operators and have fewer barriers to entry. They are also liable to exploitation by less scrupulous operators.”
IAGA has called for regulation of EGMs in the US. Charities urged the delegates to impress upon NI politicians and those they meet at City Hall and Hillsborough Castle that NI’s gaming industry “urgently requires regulation to help slow the spread of this deadly epidemic”.
The letter was signed by Pete Keogh, Trustee, Gambling with Lives; Pauline Campbell, Director, Dunlewey Addiction Services; Gerry McElroy, CEO, Cuan Mhuire NI; Colin Hayburn, CEO, Extern; Anne Doherty, CEO, MindWise; and Ross Hendry, CEO, CARE.
IAGA has been contacted for comment.