In Ireland, the bill to introduce a blanket ban on funding gambling via the use of a credit card is closer to coming to fruition. (Photo by Dylan Gillis on Unsplash)
Players in the Republic of Ireland will soon no longer have the option to fund any form of gambling using credit card transactions. That is if the new bill in the Dáil Éireann a.k.a. the Assembly of Ireland, gets its much in favour bill through parliament.
Proposals in the new bill will follow the same approach as the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC), which is to ban any use of a credit card when funding gambling activities. In the proposed bill, one that is likely to come into effect this year or in early 2022, the idea is to create a blanket ban on any credit card used in land-based casinos, retail sports betting, racetrack, or online casino in Ireland and sports book gambling.
The new bill is not one any of us a stranger to as it has long been known that credit cards + gambling are out of favour in Ireland. Many online casinos in Ireland, as well as some land-based establishments, have already ceased accepting credit cards payments, and many casinos with a Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) license, which protects players in Ireland with EU gambling laws, have also stopped accepting credit card payments in preparation for what seems to be an inevitable ban.
According to the report in the Irish Times, one of the reasons the bill is being pushed harder now is due to worrying problem gambling figures. During lockdown in Ireland, the estimated rise in problem gambling issues was 46%. The idea of a credit card ban is to protect those vulnerable to getting into debt while gambling. It is always advised to gamble using money you have, and even then, budget limits must be set!
Responsible Gambling Software: If you are an Irish casino player, you can join MGA and some UKGC licensed casinos. Many of these will reject credit card, while they also offer software to help control gambling. Reality checks keep track of how long you have been gambling during your session as well as monies won/lost. Also, self-exclusion tools give you the option to ban yourself from playing for a set period (1 hour to 1 year), while some casinos also offer the option to set daily, weekly, and monthly deposit limits.
New Republic of Ireland Regulatory Authority
There is a new Irish gambling authority in the works, and the new bill will surely coincide with the prohibition on the use of credit cards for online gambling. The original Republic of Ireland gambling authority and licensing was supposed to be ready in September, but due to delays it is now expected sometime next year and so the credit card ban is likely to come into effect around the same time.
This new ‘Gambling Control Bill’ promised in 2013, was said to come into fruition last year, then any chance of it happening during 2021 seems to have disappeared, and so surely Ireland will include online gambling regulations in 2022? It i a long time in the works, and the proposal to have online casinos, land-based casinos, and betting shops that want to offer gambling services in the Republic of Ireland to fund the regulatory authority – this is because the government does not want it to become a taxpayer burden. Maybe this is where the delay is – figuring out how to charge these gambling companies a fee for licensing applications.
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