Irish gambling regulator faces funding shortfall as online casino licensing is delayed

The new Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland (GRAI) says it has received only around half of the funding it asked for in 2026, and that gap is already slowing down the rollout of gambling reforms. For operators, PSPs, and compliance teams, the practical issue is simple: licensing, enforcement, and black-market monitoring are all being pushed back or scaled down.

1. GRAI told Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan in March that it had requested €26m from Ireland’s 2026 budget but was allocated €13.35m. The authority says it plans to become self-financing within three years, but for now the shortfall has forced it to defer or reduce several planned regulatory initiatives.
2. The regulator said the funding gap would have “a significant impact” on the pace of regulation in Ireland and would “lessen the impact that it will have in the short term”. It also said the allocation makes it impossible to advance all of its planned measures for an industry it estimates generates between €12bn and €14bn in annual turnover.
3. The launch of the new licensing framework for online gaming in Ireland, including online casinos and slot games, has been pushed back. GRAI said last week that there had been “some delays due to resources” and that operator registration systems are now expected to go live early next year.
4. On enforcement, the regulator warned that it would have “very limited capacity and capability” for compliance work and would need to “de-prioritise measures to tackle extraterritorial black-market monitoring on enforcement”. In plain English: its ability to pressure unlicensed operators outside Ireland will be constrained, and that matters for any PSP or platform that has to decide where exposure is worth the risk.
5. Even with the resource squeeze, GRAI says enforcement has started. According to the authority, dozens of operators, including two major prediction markets and an international online gambling platform, have blocked access for users in Ireland after the regulator reallocated staff and resources and received an additional €2.8m from the Department of Justice in early August.

The regulator also said insufficient regulation could make it harder for Ireland to meet standards set by the Financial Action Task Force. Earlier this year, it asked for permission to retain millions of euro collected through application fees paid by betting operators, and it described adequate funding as a matter of “fundamental importance”.