Best Online Casinos for Irish Players in 2020

Gambling laws and regulations in Ireland

Ireland doesn’t have strict gambling regulations and laws like the neighbouring United Kingdom, or Great Britain to be more specific, does. While the UK has the Gambling Commission which regulates and oversees all gambling-related activities concerning UK citizens and happening in the United Kingdom, Ireland currently doesn’t have a regulatory body for gambling.

Any online casino that wants to offer services to Irish players needs to register with the country’s Revenue Commissioner and pay taxes in Ireland. If these conditions are met, the gambling operator can operate in Ireland and/or offer its services to players from Ireland.

Irish players can gamble at any offshore online casino that holds a valid license from another European country (such as United Kingdom, Malta, Sweden, Germany, etc.), and most importantly meets the criteria mentioned above.

Although there currently isn’t any Irish license that casino operators can apply for, this might change soon. Ireland plans to act similarly to many European countries and create its own gambling regulatory authority that would issue licenses to Irish online casino sites and other subjects that operate in the gambling sphere. If this happens, the selection of online casinos available to Irish players will shrink to those holding the official license. On the other hand, it’s fair to argue that this change will most likely make the Irish gambling market easier to navigate and safer for players.

Gambling in Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland is a part of the United Kingdom, but not Great Britain. This puts it into a small legislative gap, as the UK Gambling Commission focuses on the British countries and Northern Ireland is a bit left out, as it’s legislatively not a part of Ireland either.

Gambling in Northern Ireland is still regulated by an outdated law from 1985, which simply doesn’t account for gambling over the internet, as we mentioned in our list of casinos for UK players.

The situation might change in the future, but at the moment, it’s advisable for players from Northern Ireland who wish to gamble online to simply choose an online casino with a good reputation and a license from a respected regulator. Casinos licensed by the Gambling Commission are arguably the best choice because of the geographical and legislative proximity.

Online casino bonuses for Irish players

Because of the huge number of online casinos available for Irish players, the selection of bonuses is rich, too. You can find some bonuses listed on this page, and each casino’s full bonus offering is available in our review.

If you are specifically after bonuses and want to discover the best offers, the easiest way to find them is in our lists of casino bonuses. Here are some links you can use to find interesting bonuses available for Irish players:

1. No deposit bonuses for Irish players
2. Deposit bonuses for Irish players
3. All casino bonuses for Irish players

How we review Irish online casinos

When reviewing online casinos and calculating their reputation ratings, we don’t differentiate between Irish casinos and sites that don’t accept players from Ireland. The review process is the same, although we always check whether Irish players are accepted or not so you can be sure that all sites from this list are accessible for you.

We find out or at least try to estimate the size of each casino, as bigger websites tend to be safer for players. Then we take a look at player complaints, which give us a good idea about how each casino treats its players and whether it’s fair towards them or not. The size of the casino and public complaints of its players are the two main factors influencing the reputation rating.

Of course, our independent review team examines each casino in detail and checks if its terms and conditions are fair, if it appears on any blacklists, if it doesn’t have unfair win or withdrawal limits, if its customer support is helpful, if it has a valid license, and so on. All of these form our honest casino reviews which aim to give you a good idea about the quality and reliability of each casino, so that you can make a good choice.

How to choose the best online casino for you

Speaking of good choices, let’s take a look at the best way to choose the best option from this list for you. Irish players can choose from hundreds of online casinos, which might be a bit overwhelming for you. Many casinos often feel very similar in terms of quality, only being differentiated by their brands, but it’s ultimately possible to narrow the selection down to a smaller number of suitable options.

The main criterium you should look at is our reputation rating, which gives you an idea about the reliability of each casino. But the reputation rating doesn’t tell the entire story. For example, it doesn’t cover the game selection. If you like to play games from a specific game provider, such as NetEnt, Microgaming or Playtech, you can use our filters to only choose from casinos which offer your favourite games.

You can also use the filters to limit the selection to only see casinos that hold a license issued by a specific regulatory authority, such as the UK Gambling Commission, Malta Gambling Authority or others. This might be helpful for you, as Irish players can choose from casinos licensed by a number of licensing authorities, some of which are better than others.

This list is also separated into multiple tabs, which contain different selections of online gambling sites:

• "Recommended" tab is your best choice. It only contains casinos welcoming players from Ireland with at least a good reputation, so you are most likely to find the best Irish casinos here.
• "All" tab contains all online casinos in our database.
• "Big brands" tab contains only the biggest online gambling sites with large numbers of players and revenues.
• "Newly opened" tab contains new sites that have been on the market for a short period of time, so their reliability has not been tested by time yet. On the other hand, they often stand out thanks to their modern features and interesting bonus offers.

Regardless of which filters and tabs you use, it’s always a good idea to read our full review before making the final decision and creating a new casino account. Also, if you are new to online gambling, read our article "How to choose an online casino" to find out what a casino should have to be a good fit for you.