IRELAND MARKET FOCUS
licensing regime to govern the gambling sector in Ireland. Unsurprisingly, public safety considerations and the protection of the vulnerable and underage have been to the fore as key considerations in the public discourse to date. The Bill aims to strike a balance between the implementation of safeguards to protect people from falling prey to addiction, while at the same time, recognising the freedom to gamble and the fact that that it has been a leisure activity enjoyed by many people in Ireland over many decades (and one which also generates significant revenue for the Irish economy). At the heart of the Bill is the establishment of the Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland which, in addition to being responsible for licensing gambling in Ireland, will have a range of powers to monitor compliance with licensing requirements and to tackle non-compliant operators, including through the application of administrative financial sanctions. Approach to licensing of gambling activities The Bill will introduce a comprehensive licensing regime for all forms of in-person and remote gambling activity in Ireland – including gaming, betting and lotteries. This is a welcome but long overdue development. The Bill will replace the current fragmented regime with three broad licence types that will be available to both retail and online operators: FINAL International Masters of Gambling Law Magazine A New Dawn for Irish Gambling Law Reform & Regulation • B2C gambling licenses for all forms of in-person and online gambling, including gaming, betting (including pool betting) and commercial lotteries (including bingo). Similar to the existing position for remote betting operators since 2015, all online gambling operators based abroad will have to apply for a relevant Irish gambling licence in order to legally offer online gambling services to customers in Ireland. • B2B licenses for persons selling or supplying gambling products or related services to Irish licensees or persons outside of Ireland. The new requirements, which are broadly framed, may result in many third party service providers needing to be licensed once the Bill is enacted
into law. In addition to capturing hardware and software used for gambling services, providers which offer fraud prevention, fund management, customer checks or location services, including cloud computing services, to a licence holder, are also likely to require a B2B licence under the Bill, as currently drafted. • A separate type of gambling licence for charitable or philanthropic organisations (including sports clubs, community organisations and charities). Notably while the heads of the Bill (known as the ‘General Scheme’) published in October 2021, had signalled the potential introduction of a limitation on the jurisdictions in which licence applicants must be based, this does not seem to have been carried over into the Bill itself, or at least not in the initial published draft. The Bill does not deal with the National Lottery (which will continue to be regulated by the National Lottery Act 2013) or lotteries organised by political parties (which are to be regulated separately by the recently enacted Electoral Reform Act, 2022, once the relevant provisions are commenced). Consistent with existing exemptions introduced in 2019, the Bill provides that a gambling licence won’t be required for games or lotteries which are promoted in conjunction with the “promotion selling or marketing of a particular product or service” . However the maximum prize fund amount in respect of such activities is set to be doubled to €5,000 (from the current limit of €2,500), so this will materially widen the scope of its application. GRAI role as regards licensing Once the Act is commenced, the GRAI is likely to be the sole authority for the licensing of gambling services with powers to develop, grant, renew, revoke or revise any licence or category of licence. This will see a move from the current process of applying to the National Excise Licence Office of the Revenue Commissioners for retail and remote betting licences, to an application process that will be monitored and tightly managed by a bespoke regulator. With respect to the licensing application process and the conditions which will apply to licences, the Bill is largely principles based, with a lot of the detail left to be determined
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IMGL MAGAZINE | JANUARY 2023
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