A licensee cannot accept payment by credit card. This includes payment by any electronic or digital means that uses money loaded from a credit card. A licensee cannot extend a credit facility to a participant. A licensee cannot participate in, arrange, permit or facilitate the giving of credit to a participant in connection with a gambling activity. It is a criminal offence not to comply with these requirements. An online casino cannot accept payment using a credit card. This includes payments to the licensee made by credit card through a Money Transmission Business Licensees should ensure that e-wallets used by customers are not funded by credit cards A bookmaker cannot offer a customer a “tab” to place bets i.e. they cannot allow the customer to place bets over a period of time, with payment on a later date. “Buy now, pay later” schemes are prohibited. A licensee cannot partner with a third-party finance company to offer loans or credit lines for gambling purposes. Credit-card funding of gambling accounts is now prohibited under the commenced provisions of the Gambling Regulation Act 2024, a restriction in force and reported across multiple trade sources. This payment restriction took effect on 5 February 2026 alongside the wider package of marketing and operational obligations, and it applies as a settled, in-force rule rather than a proposal under consultation. For operators, this closes off a funding channel that remains available in some other markets and requires payment-flow architecture in Ireland to route around card-based credit funding entirely. The restriction is directly tied to the same commencement date as the broader marketing package, underscoring that Ireland's payment and marketing reforms moved as a single coordinated tranche rather than as separate initiatives. No further payment-method-specific restrictions or withdrawal obligations were identified beyond this credit-card prohibition.
Ireland · Question 06 of 11
Payments and banking: Can we move player money?
Mixed · Probable · Expert approved · 2 post-review updates · Not reviewed · In expert review scope · Back to full Ireland report →
Key section parameters
| Jurisdiction | Ireland (IE) |
|---|---|
| Regulator | Recorded in register |
| Favourability | Mixed |
| Confidence | Probable |
| Review status | Expert approved · 2 post-review updates · Not reviewed · In expert review scope |
| Last collected | 20 Oct 2026 |
Summary answer
A licensee cannot accept payment by credit card. This includes payment by any electronic or digital means that uses money loaded from a credit card. A licensee cannot extend a credit facility to a participant. A licensee cannot participate in, arrange, permit or facilitate the giving of credit to a …
The Gambling Regulation Act 2024 introduces a new, confirmed, durable prohibition on credit-card and buy-now-pay-later-funded gambling, a material tightening of permitted payment methods for the licensed sector. This restriction took effect with the Act's commencement on 5 February 2026 and applies across licensees as the GRAI regime rolls out. No further cross-border capital-control or payment-corridor-specific developments were evidenced this cycle beyond this funding-method prohibition.
A credit-card gambling ban is now in force for licensed operators under the Gambling Regulation Act 2024, alongside mandatory customer-fund protection and refund mechanisms. These payment restrictions are durable, grounded directly in the Act, and represent a material change from the pre-Act baseline where no such restrictions applied. The same statutory basis underpins GRAI's enforcement reach into payment flows more broadly, including court orders that can prevent banks from processing payments connected with illegal gambling, reinforcing that payments and money-flow obligations are now a live compliance dimension for operators from the point of licensing.