Ireland has a gambling regulator but no poker licence yet: inside the GRAI's phased start
The Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland has been formally established since March 2025 and published its first annual report in July 2026. It has not yet opened applications for the gaming licences that would cover poker, and it has not published the list of games a licensee may offer. Irish card rooms are told to keep renewing with Revenue in the meantime.
Ireland passed the Gambling Regulation Act 2024 and set up a regulator to run it. Eighteen months into that regulator's life, nobody in Irish poker holds a licence from it.
What exists today
The Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland (GRAI) was formally established in March 2025, and its job under the Act is to licence, supervise and control gambling activities. It published its inaugural annual report, covering 2025, on 30 July 2026. Its own homepage is blunt about the sequencing: obligations under the Act apply to licence holders once they are licensed by the GRAI, and that will happen on a phased basis.
The Authority has set out the business-to-consumer licence types it will issue first. On the betting side: an in-person betting licence, a remote betting licence, and a remote betting intermediary licence. On the gaming side — the side poker sits on — an in-person gaming licence for premises where players attend to play, and a remote gaming licence for games offered by remote means. Lottery licences follow the same in-person and remote split.
The two gaps that matter to a poker player
First, the games list. The GRAI states that the Authority shall prescribe, for the purposes of gaming, a list of the games a licensee may provide, and that this will be shared with potential licensees as soon as possible. Until that list is published, there is no official statement of how poker is treated under the new regime — whether as a prescribed relevant game, and on what terms a card room or an online room could offer it.
Second, the applications themselves. The GRAI's annual report describes 2025 as preparatory work ahead of its first invitation for applications for remote betting licences in February 2026 — betting, not gaming. Its licensing page says information about phasing will be published in the coming months, as transition arrangements with the existing licensing authorities are finalised. In the meantime the instruction to the trade is to stay with the old regime: the GRAI is engaging with the Revenue Commissioners on gaming licences, all existing licence holders should continue to renew, and new applicants should continue to deal with Revenue. Lotteries are pointed at the Courts Service and An Garda Síochána.
Why this is worth knowing
The practical effect is that Ireland in October 2026 has a modern gambling statute, a funded regulator with a three-year strategy, a Social Impact Fund in design, and a memorandum of understanding with the Nevada Gaming Control Board — and an Irish poker scene still operating under the licensing arrangements the Act was written to replace. The live calendar has not paused for any of it: the Irish Poker Tour's 2026/27 season runs from Killarney in October through to Dublin in May, and the Irish Poker Open returns to the RDS in March 2027.
The regulator has also started staking out the edges of its remit. On prediction markets, the GRAI's published view is that those providing betting activities fall within the Act's definition of a remote betting intermediary, that such operators must be licensed to offer services to people in Ireland, and that providing a betting activity without a GRAI licence is a serious offence.
What to watch
Three publications will tell an Irish player more than any announcement: the prescribed list of relevant games, the phasing schedule for gaming licence applications, and the first register of GRAI licensees. None of the three existed as of 6 October 2026.
This is general information about how Ireland's gambling law is being implemented, not legal advice.
Frequently asked questions
Does Ireland have a gambling regulator?
Yes. The Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland was formally established in March 2025 under the Gambling Regulation Act 2024 to licence, supervise and control gambling activities.
Can an online poker room get an Irish licence yet?
Not as of 6 October 2026. The GRAI lists a remote gaming licence among the types it will issue, but its licensing page says phasing information is still to come, and its first invitation for applications was for remote betting licences in February 2026.
Is poker on the GRAI's list of permitted games?
The list has not been published. The GRAI states that the Authority shall prescribe a list of the games a licensee may provide and that it will share this with potential licensees as soon as possible.
Who licenses Irish card rooms in the meantime?
The GRAI says it is engaging with the Revenue Commissioners on gaming licences, that existing licence holders should continue to renew, and that new applicants should continue to engage with Revenue.