Gambling Regulation Act 2024 in Ireland — what it actually does

Last reviewed 14 May 2026

Written by Mariia Magus · iGaming Content Researcher · Reviewed 2026-05-14

The Gambling Regulation Act 2024 creates the framework to replace Ireland’s older betting, gaming, and lottery regime in phases, and sets up a new national gambling regulator. If you came here from a news headline, the short version is this: Ireland passed the Act in October 2024; the Minister for Justice signed a commencement order on 3 February 2026 (the specified provisions listed in S.I. No. 31/2026 came into operation 5 February 2026); and the Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland (GRAI) — established as a statutory body on 5 March 2025, when its members commenced their roles — has been accepting licence applications since 9 February 2026. Operator licences are being rolled out in phases through 2026.

This explainer covers Ireland (Republic of). It cites the statute and the regulator at every step so you can verify what it says. Our wider source rules are on the Methodology page.

What the Gambling Regulation Act 2024 is

The Gambling Regulation Act 2024 is Act 35 of 2024 — statute text on the Irish Statute Book. It was passed by both Houses of the Oireachtas in October 2024 and signed into law that same month. The commencement order (S.I. No. 31/2026) was signed by the Minister for Justice on 3 February 2026; the specified provisions listed in S.I. No. 31/2026 came into operation on 5 February 2026 (S.I. No. 31/2026 on the Irish Statute Book).

What the Act does is bigger than any single rule change. The 2024 statute creates a modern framework intended to replace Ireland’s older betting, gaming, and lottery laws in phases — including the Betting Act 1931, the Gaming and Lotteries Act 1956, and the Totalisator Act 1929 (Citizens Information — Gambling Regulatory Authority). Inside that framework, the GRAI is rolling out a single licensing framework for online and in-person gambling in phases. The Act also provides for statutory advertising and inducement rules, although the most important advertising sections (143-151) and the inducement section (157) are listed as not yet commenced in the Irish Statute Book commencement table as of 2026-05-14. Statutory safer-gambling duties sit on licensees as the licensing framework comes into force. A Social Impact Fund, funded by annual contributions from licensees under section 54 once that funding provision is commenced, is intended to support research, education, and treatment for gambling harm.

The Act applies to operators that target customers in Ireland, regardless of where the operator itself is based. That extraterritorial reach is deliberate.

The Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland (GRAI)

The Act establishes the GRAI as Ireland’s statutory regulator for gambling. The authority was formally established as a statutory body on 5 March 2025, when its seven members commenced their roles (GRAI — Authority members appointed). It opened for licensing applications on 9 February 2026. Its homepage is grai.ie. It is the body that issues licences, supervises operators, investigates complaints, and enforces the Act’s safer-gambling and marketing rules as those provisions commence (Citizens Information — Gambling Regulatory Authority).

A short list of what the GRAI is responsible for:

• Issuing, renewing, and revoking gambling licences across betting, gaming, lotteries, and gambling-related services.
• Supervising and investigating licensees — including operator compliance with the Act’s advertising and inducement rules.
• Standing up and operating the future National Gambling Exclusion Register: a single self-exclusion register covering every GRAI-licensed operator.
• Administering the industry-funded Social Impact Fund, which is intended to back research, prevention, and treatment of gambling harm.
• Issuing guidance, codes, and regulations that licensees must comply with.

As of 2026-05-14, the GRAI has not yet published any operator on a licensee register. We say that plainly because it matters: any third-party page that claims an operator is “GRAI-licensed” before the regulator itself lists them is wrong. If you are trying to check whether an operator is GRAI-licensed, the public register at grai.ie is the only source you should rely on, and that register is still being stood up.

The licence categories under the Act

The Act creates several licence categories. Some are open for applications; one or two are not yet open at all. The dates below come from the regulator and the Department of Justice commencement statement.

• B2C remote (online) betting licences. Applications opened on 9 February 2026 (per the GRAI; the commencement order, S.I. No. 31/2026, was signed on 3 February and the specified provisions came into operation on 5 February). The Minister has said new entrants may be licensed as soon as is feasible; existing operators on Revenue-issued remote-betting licences are scheduled to transition from 1 July 2026 when those Revenue licences expire.
• B2C remote betting intermediary licences. Applications opened on 9 February 2026 alongside the main remote-betting category.
• B2C in-person betting licences. Applications opened on 9 February 2026. Existing in-person operators are scheduled to transition from their current Revenue permissions from 1 December 2026.
• B2C remote gaming licences. Online-casino-style licences are a later phase of the rollout and are not yet open for applications.
• B2B “gambling related services” licences. The framework is defined in the Act but the rollout for B2B licences is still pending.

For a product-specific source check on online-casino wording, remote gaming, and “Irish licensed casino” claims, see Online casino legal status in Ireland. For player-facing duties such as licence display, account information, payment restrictions, limits, terms, and phased B2C obligations, see GRAI B2C licensee obligations in Ireland.

The B2B category is worth one paragraph on its own. The Act requires a licence for businesses that provide “gambling related services” to B2C licensees. Whether independent affiliate, comparison, or review websites are caught by that definition is one of the questions we explicitly do not answer on this site without qualified Irish legal advice. It is flagged for solicitor review in our Methodology page.

Gambling advertising and inducements under the Act

Important caveat first. The Act’s most-discussed provisions are its advertising and inducement rules — but per S.I. No. 31/2026, sections 143-151 (advertising — Part 6 Chapter 1) and section 157 (inducement provisions in Part 6 Chapter 3) were not brought into operation on 5 February 2026, and the Irish Statute Book commencement table shows them as not yet commenced as of 2026-05-14. The rules below describe what the Act says; they do not all describe what is currently in force. Until those sections are commenced, the relevant regime for gambling advertising is the self-regulatory ASAI Code Section 10 (Gambling).

For the advertising-only breakdown, including ASAI Section 10 and the current commencement status of sections 143-151 and 157, see Gambling advertising rules in Ireland.

Headline statutory items (when commenced):

• Under the Act’s Part 6 marketing provisions, broadcast gambling advertising on TV and radio would be restricted between 05:30 and 21:00 (Department of Justice press release).
• Under section 157, marketing offers such as targeted free bets, free credit, VIP treatment, and free hospitality would be restricted as inducements.
• Advertising directed at children would be prohibited. The Act’s marketing restrictions would also prohibit gambling advertising in proximity to schools (the 100 metres provision in section 144), advertising that uses under-25 imagery in non-betting contexts, and advertising that suggests gambling solves financial problems or improves social or sexual standing.
• Social-media marketing targeted on-demand would be restricted unless the recipient already holds an account with the operator and follows the operator’s channel.

Ireland’s separate self-regulatory advertising rules — the ASAI Code Section 10 (Gambling) — sit alongside the Act and currently do the heavy lifting on gambling advertising standards, including the safer-gambling message in every marketing communication (ASAI Code rule 10.10). Once sections 143-151 and 157 are commenced, the Act will become the statutory backstop and the ASAI Code will continue as the advertising-industry self-regulatory layer.

Whether the watershed will restrict an always-on static web page — for example, an operator’s home page that does not push notifications — is not settled by the Act language and is currently flagged for solicitor review. We do not give a view here.

Safer-gambling duties and the National Gambling Exclusion Register

Operators that hold GRAI licences are required to offer safer-gambling tools to every customer. Expected baseline tools include deposit and loss limits, time-out controls, reality checks, and operator-level self-exclusion. Detailed obligations come from the Act itself and from the codes the GRAI is now issuing (GRAI — Get Help portal).

The Act also provides for a National Gambling Exclusion Register in sections 44-49 (Part 2 Chapter 3): a single register, to be run by the GRAI, that would exclude a person from all GRAI-licensed operators simultaneously. Important caveat: per S.I. No. 31/2026, sections 44-49 are not yet commenced as of 2026-05-14, so the statutory register does not currently exist in operation. Until those sections are commenced and the GRAI stands the register up, the only available self-exclusion in Ireland is operator-level — handled inside the account on each operator’s site. If you are looking for help today, our Responsible Gambling page lists the services.

Penalties and enforcement

Administrative financial sanctions under the Act’s enforcement provisions go up to €20 million or 10% of a licensee’s turnover, whichever is higher (Department of Justice press release). The Act also provides for court remedies in relation to advertising: once the advertising provisions are commenced, section 150 provides for High Court orders to stop advertising activity that contravenes those provisions. Some breaches carry criminal penalties under the Act itself. Operating without the required licence exposes a business to criminal as well as regulatory consequences.

Fines at this level are designed to deter operators with large turnover from treating breaches as a cost of doing business. The number is comparable to the modern administrative-sanction ceilings used by other European regulators.

What is still unresolved as of the page’s review date

Some things the Act either does not answer or answers in language that needs interpretation. We list them so you know what to expect over the next six to twelve months:

• Affiliate and review-site status. Whether an independent affiliate, comparison, or review website is caught by the B2B “gambling related services” licence requirement.
• Static-web watershed scope. Whether the broadcast watershed restricts an always-on web page that does not actively push notifications to a user.
• Offshore operator status during the transition. Many operators currently serving Irish customers hold MGA, Gibraltar, UK, or Curaçao licences. Their status pre-transition, before they obtain a GRAI licence, is being clarified in regulator practice rather than in the Act text.
• First operator on the licensee register. As of 2026-05-14 no operator has been issued a GRAI licence. The first remote-betting licences are issuable from 1 July 2026.

We list these publicly because we would rather tell you what we do not know than guess. The full set of open questions lives on our Methodology page.

Where to follow the rollout

If you want to keep an eye on the rollout yourself:

• grai.ie — guidance, announcements, the future licensee register, and the consultation papers the regulator publishes.
• The Department of Justice press-release page on gov.ie — commencement orders, ministerial statements.
• Citizens Information’s Gambling Regulatory Authority page — kept current with plain-English summaries.

We also update the Regulation hub when something material changes.

This page is informational. It is 18+. It is not legal advice — for that, speak to an Irish solicitor. Our editorial rules and source hierarchy are on the Methodology page. If a date or section reference on this page is wrong, please tell us via the Contact page and we will fix it visibly.