When the Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland (GRAI) was formally established in March 2025 (although not yet formally rolled out), it marked the end of a regulatory journey that had stretched across nearly a century of patchwork legislation. Ireland’s path to modern online gambling regulation stands out among European nations—not for innovation, but for delay.
A Framework Built for Bookies, Not Browsers
Ireland’s gambling regulation began with the Betting Act 1931, legislation designed for an era of street-corner bookmakers and racecourse betting. Three decades later, the Gaming and Lotteries Act 1956 added rules for physical gaming establishments and lottery operations. Both laws served their time adequately. Back then, the internet was still years away, and websites like CasiMonka Ireland, focusing on online casinos, were a far-fetched dream.
The internet changed everything as it slowly became more mainstream in the 90s, and gambling became a possibility online. Yet, these pre-digital statutes remained Ireland’s primary regulatory tools well into the 2020s. While other European countries began crafting online-specific frameworks in the early 2000s, Ireland continued operating under laws written when television was still a novelty.
The 2013 Scheme That Went Nowhere
The clearest inflexion point came in 2013, when the government published the General Scheme of the Gambling Control Bill. The proposal underwent pre-legislative scrutiny and aimed to finally modernise Ireland’s gambling regulations to include online technologies. Then it simply stopped.
For years, the 2013 scheme sat in legislative limbo while online gambling flourished in an increasingly murky legal space. Politicians faced mounting questions about the delay. Media coverage highlighted the gap between Ireland’s outdated framework and the rapidly evolving online gambling industry operating within its borders. Yet the bill never progressed to enactment.
The reasons for this stall remain somewhat opaque, though the complexity of the task offers a partial explanation. Creating a unified regulatory system meant reconciling decades of fragmented rules and building consensus among stakeholders with competing interests.
By the late 2010s, the inadequacy of existing rules had become impossible to ignore. The Gaming and Lotteries (Amendment) Act 2019 provided some updates—modernising permit processes, adjusting stake limits, and changing minimum age requirements. When it commenced in December 2020, it represented progress, but frankly, not a huge difference. The fundamental architecture remained rooted in mid-20th-century assumptions.
Operators still functioned in a grey area, and consumers had limited protections. Public concern about gambling-related harm finally added urgency to the matter.
The Complexity of Comprehensive Reform
The Gambling Regulation Act 2024 ultimately addressed what incremental amendments could not: establishing a single regulator with authority across all gambling activities. They finally decided to create a modern licensing regime on the same line as the UK Gambling Commission and set enforceable standards for consumer protection and advertising in Ireland.
This breadth partly explains the delay. Drafting such a comprehensive reform requires extensive consultation and legal precision.
When the Act received presidential assent in October 2024, it represented over a decade of frustrated attempts at modernisation. Even then, full implementation is still something we’re awaiting. RAI’s formal establishment in March 2025 began a phased rollout to open the application process for online casinos and to outline strategies for enforcing the new laws. While a final date has not yet been revealed, their aim is to have it fully rolled out by 2027.
Regulation Arrives, Questions Remain
Ireland now joins European countries with dedicated gambling regulators and licensing systems tailored to digital realities. RAI’s establishment and ongoing consultations signal a shift from regulatory absence to active oversight.
Whether the wait produced better regulation remains to be seen. The fact is that this should have come much sooner to better protect players from gambling harm. The delay may simply represent lost years when harms could have been mitigated and consumer protections enforced.
What’s certain is that Ireland spent nearly fifteen years—from the first serious reform attempt in 2013 to GRAI’s creation in 2025—trying to solve a problem that only grew more complex with time. The question wasn’t whether to regulate online gambling, but how long the country could function without doing so.
The answer, it turned out, was longer than almost anyone expected.
