Back in 2021, The Avondhu told the story of a Conna woman who lost a five figure sum to a text scam. The message landed on her bank’s own text thread and opened a page that looked identical to the real thing. The lesson her family wanted shared still holds: something that arrives looking official isn’t always official. The same goes for what gets passed around about Ireland’s new gambling laws, in group chats from Mitchelstown to Lismore and on the odd Facebook page that should know better.
Most of it isn’t a scam. It is simply wrong, or a year early. For readers who want a broader rundown of Casinos in Ireland and where the law currently stands, comparison guides set out the legal position alongside the sites themselves. Read them as background, then check the claims against the official sources. Here are four things we keep hearing, and what is actually true.
Myth one: online casinos are now licensed in Ireland
They are not, and this is the claim that matters most.
Ireland’s new regulator, the Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland (GRAI), was set up on 5 March 2025 under the Gambling Regulation Act 2024. Since 1 July this year it has been licensing companies that take bets online. Online casinos and slots come under a separate category called remote gaming, and no licence of that kind has been issued.
The regulator asked for €26 million for 2026 and received €13.35 million. It has told the Minister for Justice that remote gaming licensing would slip to next year, with operator registration systems due early in 2027. Licences themselves come after that, so anyone promising you a “fully Irish licensed online casino” this side of Christmas is ahead of the facts. Irish casino sites can hold licences from regulators abroad, and some do. None holds one from the GRAI.
Myth two: the old rules still apply
This one is the reverse mistake. The old system, a set of laws stretching back as far as 1929, has been replaced for betting. From 1 July, a company taking online bets from people in Ireland needs a licence from the GRAI, and bookmakers that hadn’t secured one had to stop taking Irish customers.
So if you follow the horses at Cork Racecourse in Mallow or put a few euro on the Munster hurling championship, the bookmaker you use online now answers to an Irish regulator. If you play online slots or roulette, it still doesn’t. Both things are true at once, which is exactly why the chat in the pub gets muddled.
Myth three: anyone can set up a casino site legally now
Close to the opposite is true. The new law gives the GRAI the power to bring criminal prosecutions, with penalties of up to eight years in prison for the most serious offences, and administrative sanctions of up to 10% of a licensed company’s turnover. Running unlicensed gambling into Ireland is exactly what the Act was written to stop.
What the regulator hasn’t got yet is the money to chase all of it. The same funding letter warned that tackling overseas black market sites would also be slowed. “Not yet enforced” and “legal” are very different things.
Myth four: the advertising ban and the self exclusion register are already working
You may have read that gambling ads are banned on television and radio between 5.30am and 9pm, or that one phone call can now exclude you from every gambling site at once. Both are written into the Act. Neither has been switched on.
The advertising watershed and the National Gambling Exclusion Register sit in sections the Minister has still to commence. Seeing a bookmaker’s ad during the evening news isn’t a breach of anything yet. If you want to step back from gambling today, you do it account by account, or by asking your bank for a gambling block on your card. Bank of Ireland, AIB, PTSB and Revolut all offer one, and at Bank of Ireland it takes up to two working days to apply.
How to check for yourself
The simplest habit is to go straight to the source. The GRAI publishes its full register of licence holders online, and anyone can download it. When it was last updated on 6 October, it listed 40 licences held by 38 companies. Every one of them was for betting. If a site tells you it is licensed in Ireland, the register will tell you whether that is true, and right now, for casino games, the answer is no.
Rumours travel fast between Fermoy and Charleville. A two minute look at the register travels faster. And if gambling has stopped feeling like a bit of fun for you or someone at home, the national problem gambling helpline on 1800 936 725 is free and answers 24 hours a day.
