Ireland Starts Looking for Head of Future Gambling Authority

Ireland will finally look to establish a gambling regulator, a move that has long been in the making and deservedly so. After the country faced some trouble in bringing bookmakers in line over the use of credit cards, a watchdog that has the remit to issue unambiguous rules regarding gambling – and follow up on penalties – is finally in the works.

Bringing Ireland’s Gambling up to Speed

The junior justice minister James Browse now needs a chief executive who will head the regulator and will be in charge of the Gambling Regulatory Authority that will be established with the introduction of a new Gambling Regulation Act.

This new legislation is aligned with the best practices in the iGaming industry and it will include a number of important changes to the way it operates. The new regulator would seek to create and introduce spending limits, better AML, and KYC verifications, expand the industry to mobile gaming, and start taking aim at promotions in a bid to ensure that consumers are protected.

The regulator will have to rely on the industry paying for it, but it will be completely independent. The logic is to put the onus on gambling operators to fund the operator while that same watchdog ensures that everything is upheld. The government will offer initial payments to set up operations, contributing between  €8 million ($8.9 million) and €12 million ($13.35 million). Browne gave assurances that the regulator would be able to carry out its duties without bias and ensure high customer standards:

“The authority will have the necessary enforcement powers for licensing and to enable it to take appropriate and focused action where providers are failing to comply with the provisions of this legislation.”

Irish junior justice minister James Browse

Hiring Staff and Setting up Operations

The new executive of the gambling regulator will be able to hire up to 100 employees, including public and civil servants and industry experts who will be able to help him tackle the issues that gambling faces today. Some 12,000 people in the country are problem gamblers and another 125,000 are considered at risk.

This will be one of the priorities that the regulator would seek to address. There have been reports about problem gambling being a problem of people who suffer greater financial adversities as well. The regulator has no official set-up date as this is probably tied to the logistics of finding the necessary people who will be able to do the job.