The Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland (GRAI) has taken a major step towards implementing the nation’s new playing licensing system, inviting operators and suppliers to register their curiosity forward of the applying window’s anticipated launch later in 2025.
Following its formal institution by way of the Gambling Regulation Act 2024, the GRAI has begun to put the groundwork for issuing licenses that may govern most varieties of playing throughout the nation. Excluded from the regulator’s remit is the National Lottery, which stays below the management of Premier Lotteries Ireland, a subsidiary of France’s FDJ, till 2034.
The GRAI has launched an online survey to permit events to point the kind of license they intend to pursue. This preliminary step goals to gauge market demand and put together for a scalable and environment friendly licensing rollout.
Types of Gambling Licences to Be Issued
Under the brand new framework, three important license classes will likely be made out there:
- B2C Licences: For consumer-facing companies, together with distant or in-person betting operators, distant gaming and lottery suppliers, and distant betting intermediaries.
- B2B Licences: For suppliers providing gaming machines or backend companies resembling odds provision, danger administration, software program assist, or internet hosting.
- Charitable Licences: Targeted at philanthropic organizations internet hosting fundraising actions like pool betting or lotteries.
While licenses for B2C and B2B actions are anticipated to develop into out there this yr, the GRAI has famous that charitable license functions will seemingly not open in 2025. Charitable organizations can, nonetheless, proceed utilizing the prevailing allow system within the meantime.
Focus on Licensing as Regulatory Priority
According to GRAI CEO Anne-Marie Caulfield, the licensing section is the regulator’s high concern, given its foundational position within the broader regulatory framework. “We anticipate that we’ll be able to open for betting license [applications]
both online and on-site [land-based]
before the end of the year. And then we’re moving on to online gaming early in 2026 and then working our way through the other phases of licensing out to 2027,” Caulfield advised iGB.
Caulfield additionally described a strong software and vetting course of. The GRAI’s licensing regime is structured round three pillars: company verification, monetary checks, and technical evaluation. “There’ll be a fairly thorough vetting system for [operators]
and that will be our priority in the first instance,” she defined.
Survey Gathers Market Insights and Builds Contact Base
The survey not solely helps the regulator estimate what number of functions it might probably count on per license kind, nevertheless it additionally permits the creation of a contact record. This database will enable the GRAI to offer updates on to events because the licensing system progresses.
Operators and repair suppliers considering making use of can entry the registration survey by way of the GRAI’s official web site.
Through this initiative, the GRAI is making an attempt to map out the panorama of Ireland’s evolving playing sector and make sure that its infrastructure is able to handle a phased however complete licensing rollout.
Source:
Register your interest – Licence, Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland, March 2025.
