What's the betting?

Is Kilcullen becoming gambling central?



With a new Ladbrokes betting shop getting ready to open in the former O'Connells Lounge (above), replacing the operation in the cramped space beside Fallons but recently added to by the one run by the company beside The Hideout, does Kilcullen need yet another gambling place?

Especially since Aggie Moloney's AM Betting is also providing turf accounting services halfway down the town beside Bardons.

But Paddy Power now also has a planning application for a betting facility on the New Abbey Road in part of the Hideout building.

Gambling has always been an intrinsic part of the Irish psyche. The growth of facilities to service that interest must suggest that the gambling business itself is on the up and up, even as the general economy is on a shrinking cycle.

Brian Byrne.