Ireland

How the market works

Until the Gambling Regulation Act 2024, Ireland licensed bookmakers through the revenue authority and taxed betting on turnover, while online casino games had no Irish licensing framework. Operators served Irish customers from licences held elsewhere, and the consumer protection obligations that apply in Britain or Denmark had no Irish equivalent.

The 2024 Act creates a single regime covering business-to-consumer betting and gaming, business-to-business supply and charitable lotteries, administered by a new authority. Licensing is being introduced category by category rather than in one round. The accompanying rules restrict advertising, including a broadcast watershed, limit inducements aimed at individual customers, and establish a national exclusion register and a social impact fund financed by the industry.

Ireland is worth watching as a test of a late-arriving regime: it is being written with the benefit of a decade of other countries' experience, and it starts from a market where most of the demand is already served by operators who will have to adapt rather than build.

Who regulates it

Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland (GRAI), based in Dublin and operating under Gambling Regulation Act 2024. The authority created in 2024 to license Irish gambling for the first time under a single framework.

Licence types issued

• Business-to-consumer betting licence
• Business-to-consumer gaming licence
• Business-to-business licence
• Charitable and philanthropic licence

Full profile of the GRAI