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Legislators in Ireland may be dealing a bad hand to the country’s online poker industry. The new Gambling Regulation Act of 2024 goes into effect in October and would set a paltry €10 maximum wager and €3,000 maximum win.
The plan has been in the works for 17 years and seeks to reform the country’s gaming regulations. However, the betting limits and cap on winnings could severely hamper online poker operators, prohibiting “almost all MTTs and jackpot-style sit and go’s,” according to Poker Industry Pro.
The legislation is targeted toward sports betting, as well as bingo and lottery ticket sales. The effort is meant to replace numerous other gambling laws and regulations. But poker, as well as online casino gaming, will be the most affected and leave the country’s players left out.
The new act mentions poker only once and doesn’t spell out any exceptions for the game. The regulations could even affect major live tournament series in the country, such as the historic Irish Poker Open.
Many in the industry are hoping an exemption will be made for poker before the act goes into effect.
“As far as I know, the €10 max stake with the €3,000 max payout isn’t being applied to horse racing on account of it being classified as a sport, and we hope that poker will receive its own exemptions so that the game is still stageable,” Irish Poker Tour CEO Fintan Gavin recently told Vegas Slots Online. “I sincerely hope that representatives from the government reach out to learn about how poker operates. I think if they do that, then a sensible, practical, and coherent provision for it can be written into this law.”
Paddy Power Poker was founded in 1988 and was headquartered in Dublin until a merger with Betfair to create Flutter Entertainment in 2016. Flutter owns brands such as FanDuel, Betfair, Sky Betting, and PokerStars, which has long offered live tournaments and online poker in the country.
In November, Irishman Mark Buckley won CoinPoker’s Irish Poker Festival in Dublin for almost $200,000.
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