Many Irish gambling businesses saw their revenues grow in 2024; however, the introduction of new regulations has made the future of the industry less certain.

Ireland’s gambling industry is going from strength to strength at the moment, and 2024 was an excellent year for businesses across the sector. From increased revenues to the opening of new markets, companies ended the year in an excellent position.

However, the year was not without its challenges. 2024 also saw the introduction of new gambling regulations in Ireland, and while many welcome steps to better support customers, others are wary about overreach and the impact the new legislation might have on the industry overall.

Despite this, many businesses are heading into 2025 with a positive outlook. Here’s what 2024 had in store for Ireland’s gambling industry.

Financial performance

As is the case around the world, the Irish gambling industry is seeing an increasing number of customers turn to online options. In the last five years, the turnover of traditional gambling has decreased by around €0.2 billion, while online gambling has seen its turnover increase by almost €0.4 billion.

The online space is in a period of steady growth, with its total revenue projected to hit €1.24 billion by the end of 2025. Online gambling is expected to grow at a rate of around two percent, reaching €1.35 billion in revenue by 2029.

This is excellent news for Irish gambling, but it is a relatively low-performing sector compared to other areas of the world. For example, Canada’s gambling industry is growing around twice as fast as Ireland’s, with a predicted annual growth rate of 5.5 percent.

It’s thought this is at least partly due to relaxing regulations in Canada, giving gambling businesses more room to grow. The number of gambling sites available to residents has risen dramatically, but not all of them are high-quality unfortunately. Casino.ca experts rate and review the best gambling sites in CA to provide potential players with all of the information they need before depositing any money.

New gambling regulations in Ireland

The Irish government recently introduced the Gambling Regulation Act 2024, which has shaken up the country’s gaming sector in a big way. The most impactful part of the Act is the creation of Údarás Rialála Cearrbhachais na hÉireann, or the Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland (GRAI), which will serve to ensure the new legislation is implemented across the sector.

The GRAI will be responsible for licensing gambling businesses, with remote gaming and remote lottery licenses available for the first time. This is expected to be a huge positive for Ireland’s gaming sector, with industry insiders pointing out that it will be likely to attract more operators to the nation.

However, the Act has also introduced heavy restrictions on advertising and broadcasting, limiting gambling businesses’ ability to market themselves. This could be detrimental to the income of many of these companies and could have knock-on effects on the wider industry as a result.

Advertising restrictions

The Gambling Regulation Act has massively restricted when gambling adverts can be broadcast on Irish media. Although the Act hasn’t fully gone into effect yet, when it does it will prevent gambling businesses from advertising between the hours of 5:30 am and 9 pm, with some exemptions.

It has been pointed out that some industries rely on this timeslot to market themselves; in particular, there are concerns that this regulation will make broadcasting horse racing unviable. However, businesses will have had around a year to prepare themselves for this change by the time it goes into effect.

New maximum stakes

Another aspect of the Gambling Regulation Act is its limitation of the maximum stake that can be bet to €10, and the maximum win per game to €3,000. While this is heralded as a good way of protecting vulnerable users of certain games, it may have unintended impacts on other areas of the industry.

Online poker is particularly at risk. The length of a game of poker means that larger stakes are common, as users who expect to play for an hour or more will want the prize pot to be worth their time.

A €3,000 limit on prizes also prevents larger sit-and-go games from taking place. These restrictions limit online poker in such a way that players might abandon it for other games.

Irish gambling is in a great position at the end of 2024, with revenues growing and businesses being in a stable position heading into 2025. However, the introduction of new legislation has led to a lot of uncertainty going forward, and the sector is braced for big changes as it comes into force.

The gambling industry has plenty of time to adapt to these changes, and if it is able to do so then there is no reason it cannot continue its growth into 2025 and beyond.