Best Online Casinos for Irish Players

Introduction

Ireland is actually one of the countries with the oldest gambling history. Believe it or not, the Betting Act was introduced way back in 1926, and ever since, the country has been offering a regulated and completely legal land-based gambling. In 2015, the Act was amended to include online gambling, as well, but due to various delays, it was not until 2024 that the tax was signed into law and the industry actually went live. Ireland ushered in a new regulation era, and the Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland was in place to start granting licenses to online casino operators. Prior to that, only online sports betting licenses were issued.

Therefore, even though the modernized online gambling market is fairly new, it is successful either way. As an Irish player, you can now access perfectly licensed online casino sites and enjoy online gambling legitimately. That doesn't mean that offshore sites are no longer an option for you; in fact, there's a great number of players that continue accessing casinos based elsewhere, by being creative. Either way, you do have thousands of sites at your disposal, so you have to learn how to recognize the good from the bad sites in order to have a safe and fun gambling environment. We're here to help – follow our lead and learn the tips and tricks to finding the best Irish online casinos out there.

Tips for Online Gambling in Ireland

One thing is for sure: you won’t lack options when it comes to online casino sites to choose from. You just have to know how to look for the great ones, and if you’re new to this, the process might seem exhausting, but trust us, it is for your own good that you go through each and every step you’ll learn here. We’ll take you through them, one by one, so that you learn how the process of elimination and selection works.

Read as many casino reviews as possible

Your search for the best online casino to join starts with reading casino reviews, full stop. You need to visit reliable reviewing websites to check what experts and real players say about potential casinos to join. Now, naturally, not all reviewing sites out there are to be trusted; you need to visit sites that have been around for years and have earned readers’ trust, like ours, the WizardOfOdds. We've been providing readers with the most honest, thorough, and unbiased casino reviews for years now, and we're nowhere near stopping. But, other sites that you can check in your search are the following:

Trusted Portals

• Casino News Daily
• LCB.org
• World Casino Directory

Compare your list of potential sites to join against our blacklist

Assuming you’ve read enough reviews and created a list of potential sites to join, compare it against our blacklist. Here at WoO, we've spent years adding sites to our blacklist, sites that don't deserve to be joined for various reasons. After a careful inspection and trusting real players' experiences and complaints about those sites, we've blacklisted them in order to warn future players about the irregularities across the sites. So, if a name pops up on both your list and our blacklist, scratch it and continue searching. If it is on our blacklist, it is not worth your time exploring it further.

Thoroughly read the Terms and Conditions pages

Now that you’ve narrowed down your list a bit, it’s time to go through the Terms and Conditions page of each and every single online casino left on your list. You have to learn more about the casino’s operator, the way it works, the bonus rules, the withdrawal policy, the game limitations, other restrictions, etc. And these are all pieces of information that you will find right there, in the Terms and Conditions page.

Licensed and Regulated Irish Casinos

Naturally, you will probably want to aim for online casinos licensed in your country by the Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland. So, the next thing to check is whether any of the casinos on your list are, indeed, licensed by the local regulator. If you see some that are, keep them on your list.

The remaining sites should be cross-examined. You should look for sites that are licensed by a well-respected regulator from a different country with legal online gambling. May we suggest the Malta Gaming Authority, or Gibraltar? These have proven over and over again to control their licensees, oversee them, and punish them whenever necessary, making sure their operations are solid. Online casinos licensed by any of these are worth further exploration.

Casino Trust and Security

The next thing to check is the casinos' trust and security. To ensure that you can trust the casino to provide you with a fair online gambling experience, check whether it has an RNG certificate. A Random Number Generator is a device that runs on an algorithm to provide random and fair game results. A premier online casino has its RNG tested and hopefully approved by a respected auditor. So, if you see that the casino has an RNG certificate that is valid and active, you can trust it and you can sit back and relax knowing that the game outcomes will always be random and fair.

When it comes to security, the casino can offer several options. Strong firewalls, SSL encryption, verification and authentication tools, and other next-gen security measures may be in place. But what you can check for sure is the SSL encryption; go to the casino’s URL and press the lock symbol. With that, you will see whether its SSL encryption certificate is active and valid; if yes, it means that you can relax, knowing that all your communication with the casino is completely protected and encoded.

Banking Options for Irish Players

Normally, bank-issued credit cards are among the most popular payment methods across the industry. But for Irish players, they are a big no-no. The country introduced a credit card ban for online gambling transactions; therefore, operators targeting Irish players are not allowed to offer them credit cards for depositing and withdrawing.

Luckily, several modern payment methods like PayPal expanded in Ireland way before online gambling regulations were put in place and had already established a strong footprint in the country, that all they needed to do is tweak the rules, forbid Irish players from topping up their accounts with credit cards, and continued catering to Irish players the usual way, allowing them to make the most effortless deposits and withdrawals with their PayPal account.

So, as an Irish player, you’re not really out of options. Trustly, NodaPay, iDEAL, UnionPay, and MuchBetter are just some of your choices, but as you start exploring online casinos to join, you will see that you have many others at your disposal. Standard bank transfer is an option, too, but if you’re more of a modern player, you can even consider using digital currencies. Ultimately, the choice is yours: so, make sure you go over the fees and limits that each of these methods comes with, to go with the one that is the most affordable and convenient to use.

Depositing and Withdrawing when in Ireland

The depositing and withdrawing procedures are pretty much basic, and do not differ from one online casino to another that much. You need to go through a few intuitive steps, you are guided by the casino, and you are done with it. But, just in case, we'll walk you through them.

To make a deposit, first, you have to have a registered online casino account. Assuming by now you've chosen the casino to join, provide the needed basic personal info to create your player account. Once you do that, you can proceed. Go to the Banking/Cashier page at the casino, and look for the Deposits section. Check out the payment methods offered and pick one. Set the amount that you wish to deposit and confirm the payment by entering the method's card/bank account/account login details. Go through any authentication needed, and with that, your funds should shortly become available on your casino balance. As you may as well know, payments, ergo, deposits are normally instant, regardless of which payment method you use, but just in case, double-check whether the payment method you're using processes transactions instantly, before you decide to go with it.

For withdrawals, the procedure is pretty much the same, but there are usually two requirements to meet before you request them. First, you need to verify your online casino account by providing a document to prove your identity and age. This Know Your Customer (KYC) procedure is mandatory, and you must go through it as part of regulatory rules. Attach a copy of any government-issued document with your full name and date of birth on it, and you'll be done in a few seconds. Secondly, make sure that you have no wagering requirements left unmet; otherwise, you won't be eligible to request a withdrawal. Wagering requirements are related to the bonuses, and you'll read more about them in a bit, but essentially, you need them cleared before you go on to make a withdrawal request.

Assuming you've done what's needed, to request a withdrawal, visit the Banking/Cashier page once more, going to the Withdrawals section this time. From the methods offered, pick one, enter the amount that you'd like to withdraw, and the respective method's details, just like you did previously. This time, however, the transaction won’t be instant, in most cases. Usually, the operator takes a few hours or days to process your request, and then it’s all up to the method you’re using. Most methods process withdrawals fast, but some take days, even weeks. Overall, in up to 48 hours, you should have your winnings in your card/bank account/account.

Best Casino Games & Software in Irish Casinos

No matter the type of player you are, you can rest assured that you will have more than enough options for your favorite games across Irish online casinos. Many developers have, through partnership deals, penetrated the regulated and modernized Irish market.

What’s more, across offshore sites that accept Irish players, you will find games by literally any developer in the industry, and you can even pick casinos based on the software that powers them. The most important thing is, no matter what, you will have a myriad of games to play, and the following are just the top-preferred options for many Irish players.

Online Slots

Online slots featuring the Irish theme are aplenty; in fact, Irish luck is one of the most popular themes among slot developers and players alike. That's why you will find hundreds of slots featuring leprechauns, shamrocks, and rainbows, to mention a few details. But, even if you're not into these, you can rest assured that slots with all kinds of other themes will be at your disposal, as will slots with different features and mechanics, like Megaways and progressive slots.

These are developed by Relax Gaming, BTG, Yggdrasil, Games Global, Quickspin, and Play’n GO, among the top developers that power online casinos that you can access. Epic slots like Microgaming's Mega Moolah, Pragmatic Play's Gates of Olympus, and NetEnt’s Gonzo’s Quest will be just some of the options at your disposal, for sure.

Online Table Games

If you're not really a slots fan, you can always turn to table games, as, similarly to slots, they are offered across all online casinos and in abundance. You will get to try all the popular variants of the hit table games, like American Blackjack, European Roulette, Craps, Baccarat, and a bunch of poker variants, including Texas Hold’em and Three Card Poker.

These are, too, delivered by premier software developers; therefore, you can sit back and relax knowing that you'll be playing the best of the best.

Live Dealer Options for Irish Players

One of the best things that has happened in the online gambling industry in the past decade is certainly the invention of Live Casino games. Developers like Ezugi and Authentic Gaming, to mention a few, started live streaming tables from real land-based casinos first, to see whether they would attract online players. Not only did that happen, but a whole new era of online gambling emerged with these live streams. Today, leading developers like Playtech Live, Evolution, and Pragmatic Play have all started building studios around the world to successfully stream some of the most attractive Live Dealers games.

From simple Live Craps, to revolutionary live gameshows like Deal or No Deal Live, as a player who is interested in getting the most similar experience to the one on the real brick-and-mortar casino floor, you will have the most amazing opportunities and options to get a next-level gaming time.

Online Casino Bonuses for Irish Players

Online casino bonuses are literally everywhere; no matter the site you're exploring or you've decided to join, you will see that a bunch of offers are at your disposal in the Bonuses & Promotions page. There's no need to explain why that is so, because who doesn't want a freebie? Naturally, bonuses attract players, especially those innocent new players who don't know that they come with strings attached. That's right, behind every delicious offer, there's something you need to give in return for the freebie you receive, in the form of wagering requirements.

Wagering requirements are something to be really careful with. When choosing a bonus to claim, go with those offers that come with playthrough requirements of 30x the bonus amount or less. With that, it means that for a $10 bonus you get and use, you need to deposit and use at least $300 if you wish to cash out any of the winnings you made with the bonus you claimed. That’s why it is important to dig deep and hopefully find offers that come with reduced wagering, of say, 15x the bonus amount. Be warned: info on wagering requirements is usually in fine print in the bonus terms, so it is easy to miss; but now that you know about it, do not claim an offer without reading all about it.

Now we can move on to the fun part: the most common types of bonuses you will come across at Irish online casinos. Usually, they come in this order: Welcome Bonus (Package) or Sign-Up offer, Free Spins, Cashback, Free Bet, and tournaments. The first one lures you in, the second one keeps you engaged if you’re a slots fan, the third one acts like a safety net to give you back some of the money you lost playing, the fourth one gives you a free shot and the last one keeps you on the edge of your seat, competing to win a share of a prize pool. Then comes the Loyalty Program, for which you’ll earn your place the more you deposit, and of course, you have the Refer-A-Friend Bonus, the Birthday Bonus, and all the other kinds of daily, weekly, and monthly offers that the operator may have designed for your convenience. No matter which one you go with, don't forget to read about the wagering requirements first.

Problem Gambling in Ireland

Ireland is very serious when it comes to preventing gambling harm. In collaboration with the Bank of Ireland, voluntary measures were introduced with which banks block transactions to and from online casinos for people who have a gambling problem or are suspected to have one.

GamblingCare.ie is an independent charity, administered and funded by the Gambling Awareness Fund, which funds research, treatment services, and education to minimize gambling-related problems all across Ireland. Extern Problem Gambling and Responsible Gambling Council are also yours to consider contacting, but so are many smaller organizations that promote responsible gambling, like Rutland Center, Gamblers Anonymous, The Gambling Clinic, Walkinstown Greenhill Center, and Samaritans, to mention a few options. Self-exclusion is always an option, too, available at any online casino you may have joined. So, if help is what you need, then help is what you can get if you truly are open to receiving it.

Conclusion

Even though the regulated and modernized Irish online gambling market is still fairly new, as a player from the country, you have thousands of sites to check out and compare in your search for the perfect online casino to join. Hopefully, we've helped you figure out what to look for in an online casino and how to find just the right site for you, which will provide you with a fun but also safe gambling environment, so just go ahead and find your winner!

Written by: Michael Shackleford