The Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) published the report Patterns of online and in-person gambling in Ireland on 4 November 2026. The study was commissioned by Ireland's gambling regulator, GRAI, and surveyed 1,000 people who had gambled at least once in the past year. The key figure for operators: the last online session for one in seven participants followed an email, notification or ad.
80% of players have an account with an operator, and 53% of account holders opened more than one. 44% of respondents gamble both online and in person.
Operators' messages arrive regularly: most account holders receive them every week by email, SMS or in the app, and roughly one in four gets them daily.
Nearly 40% of those who opened an account to bet on horse racing or sports later moved on to casino games, slots, bingo or scratch cards. Another factor, according to the report, is boredom or stress: they lie behind every sixth online session.
In their last online session, 26% of players admitted they had lost “a lot”, against 17% of in-person players. Depositing money proved easier than closing an account and withdrawing winnings, and a significant share of customers struggle with closing accounts and withdrawals.
The Gambling Regulation Act 2024 has so far been only partly introduced. It allows online accounts to be limited to a single type of game, while the report says the law explicitly provides for a centralised self-exclusion system. Fewer than one in ten players trying to cut back use self-exclusion.
The authors propose three directions for the regulator: examine how players consent to notifications and how they opt out, make closing an account and withdrawing funds as simple as opening one and depositing, and check whether moving into new products is linked to harm.
GRAI began licensing online betting in July 2026. According to the regulator, 41 licences have been issued, covering 98% of the online market, and licensing of in-person betting will begin on 1 December 2027.
The next step is further implementation of the 2024 act's provisions, which GRAI is responsible for.
