Is The Future of Online Poker in Ireland in Jeopardy?
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Irish online poker players are facing a major upheaval later this year when the Gambling Regulation Act 2024 comes into force. President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins, signed the act into Irish law in October 2024, with it being fully implemented in October 2025.
The Gambling Regulation Act 2024 is designed to bring Ireland's gambling industry into the 21st century. Several welcomed changes revolve around player protection, including requiring all gambling operators to obtain licenses, establishing Ireland's first gambling regulator, and a raft of player protections, including banning credit cards and credit facilities as payment methods.
However, the Act, under its current guise, could have damaging unintended consequences for online poker players in the Emerald Isle.
Maximum Bet and Winnings Limits Could End Online Poker in Ireland
The Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland (GRAI), headed by CEO Anne Marie Caulfield, is tasked with ensuring gambling companies are compliant with the new laws. One of those laws limits players' maximum stake and maximum wins on casino games to €10 and €3,000, respectively. If, as is often the case, online poker is banded together with casino games, playing online poker in Ireland would not be viable.
A €3,000 maximum win cap would threaten tournament poker in Ireland. Operators have limited control over the size of their tournaments' prize pools, so they could only offer multi-table tournaments with small buy-ins. Similarly, satellites to major live events would disappear as many award packages worth over €3,000.
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Furthermore, cash games with all but the smallest stakes would be prohibited. PokerStars, GGPoker, PartyPoker, 888poker, and WPT Global, all online poker operators currently serving Irish players, offer cash games with $0.01/$0.02 and $0.02/$0.05 blinds. Players buying in for 100 big blinds, the industry standard, would be under the €10 maximum stakes, sitting down with $2 and $5, respectively.
Under the upcoming rule changes, players could sit at $0.05/$0.10 tables with a $10 stack but would have to leave the table once their stack reached the dollar equivalent of €10 so as not to be able to risk more than €10 on a single wager.
Should these rules come into play, nobody would blame online poker operators for not applying for an Irish gambling license because running an online poker room in Ireland would not be worthwhile.
What Next For Online Poker in Ireland?
There is every chance that the GRAI amends the Gambling Regulation Act 2024 so that online poker is treated separately from slots and casino games. Online poker operators are closely monitoring the situation in Ireland, and will likely continue lobbying for poker to be recognised as a game of skill and not pure chance.
The Act could also affect Ireland's live poker scene, particularly the Irish Poker Tour and the long-running Irish Poker Open and any online satellites to those tours.
PokerNews will bring you news of any developments as soon as they become available.
