Official language: Irish, English
Population: 4,422,100
Currency: Euro (EUR)

Current Exchange Rate
1 GBP = 1.0681 EUR
1 USD = 0.6754 EUR

Casinos in Ireland
Casino gambling is illegal in Ireland and has been since 1956 when the Irish government passed the Gaming and Lotteries Act. Fortunately for the Irish, loopholes in the law make boundaries fuzzy, and instead of casinos Ireland offers private membership "player clubs". These clubs are a bit strict – they require members to register with personal information, and they do not serve alcoholic drinks. As of early 2009 the Irish government is working to change gambling regulation, and casinos might be legalized as a result.

Game machines, like slots and pub fruities, are legal outside of player clubs. Pubs, cafes, arcades, and other places can get game machine licenses – only betting shops are not allowed to have them. Two types of machines are available – random machines, which pay out unpredictably, and reflex machines, which change their payouts based on figures from the previous play, always adjusting the payout to 80%.

Online Casinos in Ireland
Online casinos and other forms of online gambling are legal in Ireland. Since 2003 the Irish government has been giving out licenses to host online casinos, lotteries, sportsbooks, and other gaming sites. Irish internet casinos are becoming more popular with every year.

Ireland wants to establish itself as a major base for hosting online casinos, so it decided that internet gambling sites will not be taxed. There was a scare in the Irish online casino industry last year when the tax paid by land-based sportsbooks was raised from 1% to 2%. There were even rumors that tax would also be levied against online casinos, but the Irish government decided to keep online gambling tax-free.