The Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland (GRAI) licenses and polices gambling under the Gambling Regulation Act 2024. Here is what changes for you.
The Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland is the regulator created by the Gambling Regulation Act 2024. It was established on 5 March 2025, opened betting licensing in 2026 and enforces player protections such as the credit card ban, spending-limit tools and, once it goes live, a national exclusion register.
In a single sentence: Ireland swapped a patchwork of laws going back as far as the Gaming Act 1744, including the Betting Act 1931 and the Gaming and Lotteries Act 1956, for one modern Act and one regulator. The Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland now decides who may offer gambling here, what they must do to protect you and what happens when they fall short. Consider this GRAI licensing explained for players, not lawyers.
The Gambling Regulation Act 2024 is Act No. 35 of 2024 and runs to 271 sections. It became law on 23 October 2024, but it does not all apply at once. The Minister for Justice switches it on in blocks through commencement orders, which is why you will read that some rules are "in force" while others apply "once fully commenced". We point out which is which all the way down this page.
GRAI - the Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland, in Irish Údarás Rialála Cearrbhachais na hÉireann. An independent statutory body with seven members, chaired by Paul Quinn, with Anne Marie Caulfield as chief executive.
It covers online and in-person gambling, gaming, betting and certain lotteries, including bingo. The National Lottery keeps its own separate regulator.
A GRAI licence replaces the old Revenue and court permits. Applicants are vetted as fit and proper, must show they can fund winnings and that the money comes from lawful activity. The GRAI keeps a public register of every licence holder.
Duties that used to be good practice are now written into statute: age checks, paying out winnings, a facility to set spending limits, closing an account on request and no gambling on credit.
The Act limits advertising, sponsorship and inducements. When fully commenced it sets a broadcast watershed and bars offers aimed at a particular person or group of people.
The GRAI can investigate, fine, suspend or revoke licences and take operators who break the law to court. Some offences carry prison terms of up to eight years.
Every date below comes from grai.ie, gov.ie or the Irish Statute Book. Where the regulator has not fixed a date, we say so rather than guess.
Next milestone: in-person betting licences from 1 December 2026.
The Gambling Regulation Act 2024 is signed into law as Act No. 35 of 2024. It still needed commencement orders and a regulator.
Minister for Justice Jim O'Callaghan formally establishes the Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland, the day after appointing its members.
The Minister signs S.I. No. 31 of 2026, the Gambling Regulation Act 2024 (Commencement) Order 2026. It switches on licensing, enforcement, complaints and a first set of consumer protections.
The order takes effect. From this day licensees may not accept credit cards or extend credit, must let customers set monetary limits, and face fines of up to €20 million or 10 per cent of turnover.
The GRAI opens its Operator Portal for the first three licence types: remote betting, remote betting intermediary and in-person betting.
The first GRAI licences for online and telephone betting take effect, taking over from the Revenue licences as they expire. Licensed bookmakers must now meet every commenced duty in the Act.
According to the Minister's February statement, in-person betting operators move to GRAI licences from 1 December 2026, when their existing Revenue licences expire.
Gaming, which covers online casino games, is a later phase of the rollout. The GRAI says applications for further licence types, including gaming, lotteries, B2B and charitable licences, will open during 2027 and 2028, without a fixed day yet.
Legislated, not live yet: the exclusion registerThe National Gambling Exclusion Register is written into sections 45 to 47 of the Act, but that chapter was not part of the February 2026 order. The GRAI says it is designing the register so it can run as soon as possible after licensing begins. Until then, use the self-exclusion tools inside your casino account and the gambling block in your banking app.
Most of the Act talks to operators, but almost every duty ends in something you can see. Here is the before and after.
Top up with a credit card
Debit card or other non-credit options
Section 165 bans credit cards, credit facilities and e-wallets loaded from a credit card. In force since 5 February 2026.
Limits offered if the site chose to
A legal right to set a monetary limit
Section 164: once set, the limit cannot be raised or removed for the period you choose, and any overpayment is refunded within 7 days.
Gambling ads at any hour
No broadcast ads from 5:30 to 21:00
Section 149 covers TV, radio and on-demand services. It applies once the advertising rules are fully commenced.
Self-exclude site by site
One national exclusion request
Sections 45 to 47: one entry blocks all licensed online operators, indefinitely, with removal possible after 6 months at the earliest.
Section 157 says a licensee may not offer an inducement to a specific person or a specific group of people, and lets the Minister set conditions on offers made to the general public. That section was left out of the February 2026 order, so it is one to watch. In practice it points towards offers that are the same for everyone and clearly published, which is how we prefer to read the welcome package anyway: terms first, then decide.
Nothing in the Act taxes players. Winnings stay outside capital gains tax under section 613(2) of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997, and there is no income tax, USC or PRSI on them. The Act also puts a legal duty on licensees to pay out winnings and to close an account when you ask, with your balance returned.
SpinAway Casino is operated by Jungle Media Ltd, a Maltese company, and licensed by the Malta Gaming Authority under licence MGA/B2C/822/2020, which the MGA register lists as Licensed. When we went through the account on 29 September 2026, the first thing we did was open the responsible-gambling tools and set a limit before touching the cashier, and we recommend the same order to anyone opening a SpinAway account. For deposits, the cashier lists Visa and Mastercard debit cards alongside e-wallets such as Skrill and Neteller.
You do not need to read 271 sections. These are the habits that put the new protections to work for you, in the order we would do them.
For betting brands in Ireland, look the name up on the GRAI register at grai.ie, which you can filter or download as a CSV. For a casino, check the licence number with the regulator that issued it; our licence check shows how we did it for SpinAway on the MGA register.
Pick a weekly or monthly amount you are happy to lose and set it in the account first. A limit set in a calm moment is worth more than any promise made after a losing run.
Credit cards are out, and so are e-wallets topped up from one. A debit card or another option shown in the cashier keeps you on your own money; SEPA transfers from Irish banks usually settle in one or two working days.
The GRAI lists AIB, Bank of Ireland, EBS, PTSB and Revolut among the banks offering a gambling block for card payments. It sits outside any casino and works across all of them.
Identity checks protect you as much as the operator. At SpinAway the T&C trigger them at €2,000 in lifetime deposits, and the casino can ask earlier, for example before a withdrawal; our verification guide lists what to have ready.
If gambling stops being fun, Gambling Care and Problem Gambling Ireland offer free, confidential support, and the GRAI's gambling safety pages list HSE services near you.
TipScreenshot your limit settings after saving them. A dated screenshot makes any later query quick and clear.
Open an account, set your limits in a minute and play the slots and live tables on your own terms.
We checked each fact on this page against these six official sources on 29 September 2026. They are the best places to confirm anything in our GRAI licensing explained guide, or to see what has changed since.
The regulator's own announcements on its establishment, the Operator Portal and remote betting licences, at grai.ie/news.
The public list of every GRAI licensee, with a CSV download, at grai.ie/register.
The full text of Act No. 35 of 2024 on the Irish Statute Book, at irishstatutebook.ie.
S.I. No. 31 of 2026, which lists exactly which sections came into operation on 5 February 2026, at irishstatutebook.ie.
The Minister's press release on the order, the credit card ban and the licensing dates, on gov.ie.
A plain-English overview of the GRAI and the exclusion register, at citizensinformation.ie.
We wrote this page for adults in Ireland who play for fun and want to understand the rules. If one of these sounds like you, a different page or service will serve you better.
We read player forums and the comments we receive. These are the four themes that come up most, in our own words.
Most players who mention the credit card ban see it as common sense, and several say paying from a current account makes a budget easier to keep.
A frequent question is which rules apply today and which come later. The staggered commencement orders are hard to follow without a timeline, which is exactly why we built the one above.
Players who have used site-by-site self-exclusion say one national request would help a lot. Bank blocks in the app get praise in the meantime.
Some players worry that the inducement rules will mean fewer promotions. Others welcome the idea of fewer personal nudges and would rather see one clear offer with plain terms that everyone can read.
Our own view after going through the Act: the protections that already apply are practical and easy to live with. Set a limit, pay by debit card, keep the help lines handy, and the new rules work quietly in your favour while you pick a slot you like at SpinAway Casino.
Short answers, each one checked against the Act, the GRAI or gov.ie on 29 September 2026.
The GRAI (Údarás Rialála Cearrbhachais na hÉireann) is the independent statutory body set up under the Gambling Regulation Act 2024 to license, supervise and control gambling in Ireland, online and in person. It was officially established on 5 March 2025 and is led by chairperson Paul Quinn and chief executive Anne Marie Caulfield.
The Act became law on 23 October 2024 but is being switched on in stages by commencement orders. The biggest step so far was S.I. No. 31 of 2026, signed on 3 February 2026 and in force from 5 February 2026, which started licensing, enforcement, the credit card ban and the spending-limit duty.
Go to grai.ie and open Register. It lists every GRAI licence holder, can be filtered on screen and downloaded as a CSV file; when we looked on 29 September 2026 it said it was last updated on 21 September 2026. For a casino, check the licence number the operator gives in its own terms against the register of the regulator that issued it, as we did for SpinAway in our licence check.
No. Since 5 February 2026 licensees may not accept credit cards, offer credit or help arrange it, and section 165 also covers e-wallets and other digital methods topped up from a credit card. Use a debit card or one of the other options shown in the cashier, as explained in our payments section.
Not yet. Sections 45 to 47 of the Act create it and the GRAI says it is building it so that it works as soon as possible after licensing starts. Once live, one request will block you from all licensed online operators for an indefinite period, and you can ask to be removed only after six months at the earliest.
No. Winnings are outside capital gains tax under section 613(2) of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997, and there is no income tax, USC or PRSI on them for players.
Under section 206 the GRAI can impose a financial penalty of up to €20 million or 10 per cent of turnover, whichever is greater. It can also suspend or revoke a licence, and serious breaches, such as failing to protect children, can lead to criminal prosecution with prison terms of up to eight years.
SpinAway Casino is operated by Jungle Media Ltd, a Maltese company, and licensed by the Malta Gaming Authority under licence MGA/B2C/822/2020, which the MGA register shows as Licensed. More about us and our checks is on the About us page.
You now know what the Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland does and which protections already apply. Set a limit that suits you, fund with a debit card and pick a game you enjoy.
Play on your terms
Limits first, then the fun part
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