The Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland (GRAI) received €13.35 million in State funding for 2026, about half of the €26 million it asked for, and has warned the Government that the gap will delay online casino licensing and cut back its work against offshore operators.
The figures come from correspondence the GRAI sent to Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan in March 2026, first reported by The Irish Times. The authority told the minister the allocation would have “a significant impact” on the pace of regulation and that it could not deliver every initiative it had planned for the year.
The GRAI was established in March 2025 under the Gambling Regulation Act 2024 and is still building the licensing regime that will replace Ireland’s older, largely offline legislation. Estimates put annual gambling turnover in Ireland at €12 billion to €14 billion.
A €12.65 million gap
The difference between what the GRAI requested and what it received comes to €12.65 million. The Department of Justice added €2.8 million in early August, which narrows the shortfall but leaves the authority well short of its original bid.
The department has pointed out that the 2026 allocation is 92% higher than the GRAI’s funding for the previous year.
The GRAI is meant to become self-financing within three years of its establishment, funded by income from the operators it licenses. Until licensing is fully running, it depends on the Exchequer. The authority is also seeking department consent to keep application fees already paid by betting operators, which would give it a further source of income while State funding stays tight.
Online casino licensing moves to 2027
The most direct effect for operators is timing. Licensing for remote gaming, covering online casino and slot products, has been pushed back to 2027. The registration systems operators need to apply are now expected to go live in early 2027.
For online casino and slot operators serving Irish customers, that means another year without a clear route into the new regime. Compliance and enforcement work has also been constrained by the budget, according to the GRAI’s correspondence.
Black-market monitoring deprioritised
The authority told the minister it would “de-prioritise measures to tackle extraterritorial black-market monitoring on enforcement.” It described the decision as “regrettable in terms of harmful gambling and anti-money laundering.”
Monitoring operators based outside Ireland that take Irish customers without authorisation is one of the main tasks the new regulator was set up to handle. Scaling it back while licensing is delayed leaves a period in which unlicensed offshore sites face less scrutiny, and licensed operators have no online casino route to compete with them.
The GRAI has still recorded some enforcement results. Dozens of operators have blocked access for Irish users, including two major prediction markets and one international online gambling platform. The authority credited this to moving existing staff into enforcement roles, along with the extra August funding. Prediction markets have drawn attention from several European regulators this year, with the Malta Gaming Authority recently suggesting some products may fit within Malta licences while casino executives at G2E said the platforms are hurting their business.
Department of Justice response
The Department of Justice pointed to its “strong and continuing commitment” to the GRAI and said funding requests were a normal part of the budget process.
“The authority is entitled to make a case for resources, as is the case for any organisation that is publicly funded.”
Department of Justice spokesperson
What happens next
The GRAI’s 2027 allocation will decide whether the early 2027 timeline for registration and online casino licensing holds. Any further delay pushes back the fee income the authority needs to meet its three-year self-financing target, which in turn keeps it reliant on Exchequer funding.
For operators, the practical questions are when remote gaming applications open, what the fee structure looks like, and how quickly the GRAI can return to monitoring offshore sites once its budget allows. The decision on application fees held from betting operators will be the first signal of how much room the department is willing to give the regulator.
Source: Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland
