Ireland: GRAI officially opens betting licence applications

The Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland (GRAI) has formally announced the opening of its licence application process.  

Prospective applicants can now apply for three licence types, including; a remote betting licence, remote betting intermediary licence and an in-person betting licence – via the regulators online Operator Portal.  

In the wake of the passage of the Gambling Regulation Act 2024, a new modern framework is now to be implemented across Ireland’s gambling industry. As such, the Totalisator Act 1929 and the Betting Act 1931 are to be repealed under this new setup, replacing Ireland’s pre-existing gambling laws with a consolidated regulatory design to reflect more modern market practices.  

Now, existing licences from the Office of the Revenue Commissioners are set to expire as of early July 2026 for online operators and December 2026 for land-based organisations. Indeed, successful applicants from each respective sector will then enter the market under the new licence regime upon these dates, with the GRAI inheriting the powers to enforce compliance and regulations from the previous market regulator.  

This latest update falls in the wake of an additional significant change last week, which saw the GRAI gain the authority to being cleared to formally issue betting licences in Ireland. Combined with this latest advancement, these recent changes mark significant steps towards a gambling market overhaul which has been gestating in the nation for a number of years.  

Elsewhere in the market, January saw the GRAI commission research by the Irish Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) which highlighted that problem gambling is now increasingly more common in adults that became exposed to the gambling as children – with results from over 1,600 participants being compiled to examine links between gambling exposure and behaviour.