Online gambling is legal in the UK and Ireland, and both markets are thriving. And based on 2024 and 2025, 37% of the UK public had taken part in some form of online gambling in the past four weeks (Statista), and online gambling adoption is expected to reach 95.9% of users in Ireland by 2025 (Tribuna).
They are successful markets with high adoption rates, but how does Ireland’s online casino industry differ from the UK’s? Read on to find out.
Regulatory Frameworks and Licensing Bodies
The UK’s online gambling market is regulated by the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC). Any operator with a platform available to UK players must hold a UKGC licence.
Ireland only recently overhauled its laws. The Gambling Regulation Act 2024 created the Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland (GRAI) as an independent regulator under the Department of Justice, and since then, the market has been tightly regulated.
The GRAI officially began operating in 2025 and will phase in licensing over several years. Under the Act, all online and land gambling activities, except the national lottery, will require GRAI licences.
Both are tightly regulated yet accessible markets. The fact that they’re so open but relatively safe is one of the reasons they have one of the most active global online gambling markets.
Enforcement and mandates
The UKGC is well-established and routinely audits licensees, issuing fines or revoking licences for violations. Ireland’s GRAI is new but is already implementing strong tools. For example, the 2024 Act allows GRAI to hand out fines of up to €20 million or 10% of turnover and to block unlicensed websites.
Both prohibit credit card gambling. The UK banned it in 2020, and Ireland’s new law similarly forbids credit card bets.
Market Size and Revenue Statistics
The UK online casino market is so much bigger than Ireland’s.
Online casino games in the UK reached around £5.0 billion in gross gambling yield (GGY) year-over-year to March 2025. Within that, slots contributed £4.2 billion.
In total, the UK’s online gambling market, including sports betting, was about £7.8 billion GGY – a 13.1% increase year-on-year (UKGC). It’s a massive market that consistently grows.
Forecasts for Ireland’s total gambling revenue state numbers will reach €2.57 billion, of which roughly €700 million comes from online casinos (Statista). We have to wait for the 2025 numbers to come out to know if that became true. Statista also predicts Ireland’s online gambling market will rise from €1.24 billion in 2024 to about €1.40 billion by 2029.
Game Availability and Software Providers
Both countries have a list of best online casinos with endless online casino games. Some of the most popular are:
- Slots
- Table games like blackjack and roulette
- Live dealers
- Poker
- Bingo
That said, Ireland’s new regulations add some game-specific limits. For example, Irish law imposed maximum stakes and payouts on certain games like casino machine bets that are capped at €10 per spin and maximum wins at €3,000.
The UK has no general stake or win caps, although the Gambling Commission does require game-design safeguards. And from January 2025, UK-licensed games must be slower and must display real-time spend and time played.
In terms of operators and software providers, the markets are quite similar. Major global casino technology vendors, such as Playtech, NetEnt, Evolution Gaming, Microgaming, IGT, etc., supply games to both UK and Irish sites. Many of the same platform operators active in the UK also serve Ireland, often using .ie domains, giving players multiple opportunities to game for fun.
Advertising and Player Protections
In the UK, gambling advertising is self-regulated through industry codes (CAP/BCAP), which prohibit:
- Misleading ads
- Appeals to minors
- Certain inducements
There is no blanket ban on gambling ads by time of day, though voluntary measures, like “whistle-to-whistle” limits during live sports in 2019, have been used.
Ireland’s law enforces strict advertising limits. For example, it bans nearly all gambling ads on TV/radio between 05:30 and 21:00. It also forbids targeted “VIP” offers or bonuses to specific players and limits social-media marketing.
Since mid-2025, the UK has imposed a similar direct-marketing opt-in rule (customers must choose to receive gambling ads), but it has not matched Ireland’s broad watershed ban.
Player protection and compliance
Both countries have consumer safeguards, but Ireland puts more rules up front. The UKGC has long mandated features such as self-exclusion schemes (GamStop), mandatory deposit limits on registration, affordability checks, and, since 2020, the credit card ban we mentioned.
Ireland’s new regime similarly bans credit cards, mandates self-exclusion, and adds unique measures like the national exclusion register, a central list that blocks excluded players from all licensed Irish sites. It also forbids extensions of credit or promotional credit facilities to players.
Ireland’s online casino market doesn’t actually differ from the UK’s that much in terms of the actual gaming experience for players. There might be some differences in advertising, but that’s not exactly something players notice. And considering a lot of online casinos are accessible in both countries, the gaming experience might feel the same.
