GRAI Launches Consultation on Prescribed Games, Record-Keeping, and Player Disclosure Rules

Ireland's Gambling Regulatory Authority has opened a public consultation on three foundational sets of regulations covering which games operators may offer, what records they must keep, and what account information they must proactively share with players. Submissions close on 20 August 2026, with final rules to follow.

• The Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland (GRAI) has launched a public consultation on three proposed regulations under the Gambling Regulation Act 2024, covering prescribed games, record-keeping, and player account disclosures
• The prescribed-games regulation will establish the definitive list of games a gaming licensee may offer, with each operator's licence specifying which products from that list they are permitted to provide
• Record-keeping regulations have been drafted to align with the Act's obligations, international best practice, gambling safety requirements, and the GRAI's quarterly audit and inspection process
• Remote gambling licensees will be required to send account-holders regular alerts detailing winnings, losses, and time spent gambling, and must provide immediate access to gambling history on request
• The consultation closes at 3pm on Thursday 20 August 2026, after which the GRAI will consider all submissions before making the regulations final

Ireland's New Regulator Moves to Codify the Core Rules of Its Licensed Market

The Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland (GRAI) has formally invited submissions from operators, stakeholders, and the public on three proposed sets of regulations that will define the operational backbone of the country's licensed gambling market. The consultation, published under powers conferred by the Gambling Regulation Act 2024, covers the list of games that gaming licensees may supply, the records and accounts licensees must maintain, and the information that remote operators must regularly provide to account-holders. Responses must be submitted by 3pm on Thursday 20 August 2026.

The move follows the GRAI's issuance of its first betting licences earlier this year, which marked the formal activation of the new regulatory regime. That milestone made the promulgation of substantive operating rules a matter of practical urgency: operators now hold licences but are awaiting the secondary legislation that will define precisely what they can offer and how they must behave.

Prescribed Games: Defining the Product Perimeter

Section 86 of the 2024 Act requires the GRAI to compile a prescribed list of games that gaming licensees may provide, with each individual licence then specifying the subset of those games a given operator is authorised to supply. The regulator states that an earlier information-gathering survey of operators on remote and in-person gaming has informed its proposed approach, and the consultation now concerns the specific list it proposes to prescribe.

The design of a prescribed-games framework is consequential for product strategy across the market. It determines which verticals are permissible and, implicitly, which are not, and it establishes the mechanism by which new products will need to be assessed and added in future. Operators with product roadmaps that extend beyond the initial list will need to engage with this consultation to ensure their offerings are accommodated.

Record-Keeping and Player Alerts: The Compliance Infrastructure

The proposed record-keeping regulations under Section 152 set out what records and accounts certain licensees must keep and maintain. According to the GRAI, the drafting draws on obligations already contained in the Act, international best practice, gambling safety considerations, and the requirements of the quarterly returns process that underpins the regulator's audit and inspection programme. The quarterly returns mechanism is central to the GRAI's supervisory model, and the records regulations will effectively define the evidentiary standard operators must meet to satisfy those returns.

The third element of the consultation addresses Section 173, which governs what remote gambling licensees must communicate to account-holders. The proposed regulations prescribe the specific information operators must provide, the intervals at which they must send alerts showing account-holders their winnings, losses, and time spent gambling, and the periods during which immediate access to full gambling history must be available. Practical implementation guidelines are included alongside the regulatory text. This category of obligation sits at the intersection of player protection and operational compliance, and is comparable to account-transparency requirements being introduced or tightened in several other European markets.

The Prescribed-Games List Will Shape the Irish Market's Product Landscape for Years

The most structurally significant of the three instruments is the prescribed-games regulation. Unlike record-keeping or disclosure obligations, which primarily affect internal processes, the games list directly determines what licensed operators may sell. A narrow list protects against the rapid introduction of high-risk formats but constrains product competitiveness relative to unlicensed offshore operators, which face no equivalent restriction. A broad list maximises licensed-market attractiveness but may draw regulatory criticism if it includes formats associated with accelerated play or significant harm potential. The GRAI's decision to consult widely, and to build on an earlier operator survey, suggests an awareness of that tension; the submissions it receives will be a test of how coherently the Irish industry can articulate where those boundaries should sit.

Record-Keeping Standards Are the Foundation of Effective Enforcement

The Section 152 regulations may attract less public attention than the games list, but they are operationally foundational. A regulator's ability to detect non-compliance, impose proportionate sanctions, and build an evidence base for future policy depends directly on the quality and consistency of the data it can access. By anchoring its record-keeping requirements to international best practice and tying them explicitly to the quarterly returns process, the GRAI is building the audit infrastructure that will determine whether its supervisory model has real teeth. Operators that engage with the consultation now are better positioned to influence the format and scope of returns before they become binding, rather than adapting systems after the fact. Similar compliance-infrastructure investments are visible in regulatory modernisation programmes elsewhere, from the Curaçao Gaming Authority's updated licensing framework to the UK Gambling Commission's staged rollout of financial risk assessments.

The Player-Alert Obligations Signal Where the GRAI's Harm-Prevention Priorities Lie

The Section 173 player-information requirements are the most direct expression of the GRAI's responsible-gambling philosophy. Mandating regular loss-and-time alerts, and guaranteeing immediate access to gambling history, reflects an evidence-based view that informed players make better decisions, and that operators have an affirmative duty to supply that information proactively rather than on request. The practical guidelines accompanying the regulations will be important: the protective value of alerts depends on their frequency, clarity, and timing, and poorly designed notifications risk becoming a box-ticking exercise rather than a genuinely useful intervention. The GRAI's willingness to prescribe implementation detail, rather than leaving it to operator discretion, indicates an intent to set a meaningful floor. How that floor compares to analogous requirements in more mature European markets will become clearer once the final regulations are published.