Ireland

Ireland is standing up a modern, unified gambling regime under the Gambling Regulation Act 2024 (enacted 25 October 2024), which established the Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland (GRAI) to replace a fragmented system of court and revenue permits. The GRAI, formally established in 2025, licenses business-to-consumer betting, gaming and lottery, plus business-to-business suppliers and charitable gambling, on a phased basis: B2C remote (online) betting applications opened on 9 February 2026, with the first licences issued from 1 July 2026 and in-person betting from 1 December 2026; remote gaming, B2B and charitable licences follow in later phases. The Act introduces a watershed advertising ban, prohibitions on inducements such as free bets, a National Gambling Exclusion Register and a Social Impact Fund financed by operator contributions. Licence fees are tiered by an operator's gross gaming revenue; the Social Impact Contribution rate is still to be prescribed by the Minister for Justice (the 2024 Act sets no statutory cap).

From permits to regulator

Before the 2024 Act, Irish gambling oversight was split across District Court certificates, Revenue-issued bookmaker and remote betting permits, and separate lottery and gaming rules dating to the mid-twentieth century. No single body held licensing, conduct and enforcement powers. The Gambling Regulation Act 2024, enacted on 25 October 2024, consolidates these functions in one statutory regulator, the GRAI, formally established in 2025. For a diligence reader, the material change is institutional: a named authority now sets standards, grants licences and can sanction, replacing a patchwork where responsibility was diffuse and cross-border online activity sat largely outside domestic control.

A phased rollout

Licensing arrives in sequence rather than all at once. Applications for B2C remote (online) betting opened on 9 February 2026, with the first licences issued from 1 July 2026; in-person betting licensing follows from 1 December 2026. Remote gaming, business-to-business and charitable licences are scheduled for later phases with no fixed public date. During this transition an activity is regulated under the new regime only once its phase commences, so operators outside the open categories continue under prior arrangements until their window opens. The framework is being built category by category, not switched on in a single day.

Advertising and inducement limits

Two prohibitions distinguish the Irish approach from a fee-and-conduct model. A watershed bars gambling advertising on television, radio and on-demand services between 05:30 and 21:00, removing daytime broadcast reach. Separately, the Act restricts inducements: free bets, money-back offers, VIP schemes and incentives targeted at named individuals or cohorts are not permitted, though some broad promotions remain. Together these reshape acquisition, because customer-growth approaches built on bonuses, personalised offers and prime-time advertising are constrained by statute rather than by voluntary code, altering the mechanisms through which operators can attract and retain accounts.

Register and fund

The Act creates two market-wide mechanisms. A National Gambling Exclusion Register, still being established, is intended to let a person block their own access across licensed operators through a single request rather than operator by operator. A Social Impact Fund, financed by mandatory contributions from commercial licence holders and administered by the GRAI, is to finance research, education and treatment relating to gambling harm, with a stated funding target of at least 14 million euro per year. Both are designed to function across the licensed market as a whole rather than within individual operators.

How charges are split

Public charges sit in two places, and the GRAI does not set gambling tax. The existing betting duty of 2% of turnover or stakes, including Remote Betting Duty on offshore operators, plus 25% of betting-exchange commission, remains payable to Revenue. The GRAI instead levies licence fees tiered by an applicant's gross gaming revenue. A third, distinct charge is the Social Impact Contribution that finances the fund; its rate is still to be prescribed by the Minister for Justice and carries no statutory cap, so the eventual cost of that element is not yet fixed.

Tax

Key facts

Open forecasts

Licence types

Fees

Change-watch

Sources (4)