Ireland’s new gambling regulator says budget cuts will delay online licensing and weaken black-market enforcement

Ireland’s Gambling Regulatory Authority says funding shortfalls are already slowing key parts of its rollout, including online gambling licences and registration systems for operators. For PSPs, acquirers, and banks working in high-risk verticals, the practical takeaway is simple: the market is opening, but the regulator does not yet have the resources to police it at full speed.

1. The authority, created recently, warned in a letter to Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan that it has had to pause key reforms because of funding constraints. It oversees an industry that generates between $13,800 and $16,100 million a year and says it aims to become self-funded within three years.
2. For 2026, the regulator requested $29,9 million and received $15,4 million from the Government of Ireland. According to the authority, that still represents a 92% increase from the previous year, but not enough to cover the rollout it had planned.
3. The regulator said the budget gap will have a “significant” impact on the pace of regulation in Ireland and will reduce what it can achieve in the short term. In March, it said it would postpone or scale back several core objectives because resources were too tight.
4. Online gambling licensing, including slots and virtual casinos, has now been pushed to next year. The registration systems for operators are also due to go live only at the beginning of next year, leaving the regulator without a central tool to identify who is offering these services in the meantime.
5. That matters for enforcement. The authority said it will have “very limited” capacity and ability to enforce the law, so it has to deprioritise action against the offshore black market, including fully unauthorised online gambling and illegal gambling outside the country.

The regulator also warned that weak supervision creates a “significant risk” for Ireland’s compliance with Financial Action Task Force (FATF) standards on anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing. A spokesperson said enforcement work has already started, and dozens of operators have blocked access to users in Ireland, including two major prediction markets and one international online betting platform.

There was one partial offset: in early August, the Department of Justice granted an additional $3,2 million, which allowed the authority to reallocate staff and budget. In March, it also asked the department for permission to retain millions of dollars in application fees paid by bookmakers. For PSPs, the signal is not that Ireland is closed; it is that licensing and enforcement are moving, just with less horsepower than the regulator would like.