Under the Act
The use of credit cards as a means of payment for gambling, gaming or betting is prohibited as are the use of electronic methods of payment that are funded by credit cards and the offer of credit facilities.
The licensee of a gambling website will be required to maintain a register of account holders with the following information:
- account holder’s name, address and date of birth.
- The licensee must remove the player’s entry from the register of account holders when requested to do so by the player, or if the player has not participated in any relevant gambling activity provided by the licensee for a period of 13 months.
A gambling website should send alerts at regular intervals to the player’s account, detailing their net spend, their winnings, and losses and the time spent by the player participating in relevant gambling activities through that account.
Staff must have training and recognise the identifying characteristics of excessive or compulsive gambling and have detailed knowledge of gambling support services.
A gambling website must display the following information prominently to a customer on the home page of a website and on each on-line platform in the case of remote gambling:
-characteristics of excessive or compulsive gambling and its adverse effects,
-facilities available to support players to gamble in a manner that avoids excessive or compulsive gambling,
-facilities available to players to block their access, or the access of a child, or both, to gambling websites or platforms, and
-gambling-support services that provide information and assistance in respect of excessive or compulsive gambling.
A gambling website must not offer a person any form of targeted inducement to encourage them to gamble or continue to gamble.
The licensee of a gambling website shall provide a customer with a facility which enables a monetary limit to be set on their account.
If a person feels they need to take a break from gambling, gaming or betting they will be able to self-exclude themselves by submitting their details to the National Gambling Exclusion Register. This register administered by the GRAI, will be a centralised record of individuals who want to exclude themselves from online gambling websites that have been licenced to operate in Ireland. If the player tries to gamble during the exclusion period, the gambling operator must take reasonable steps to stop them.
A gambling website should provide the player with immediate access through the gambling account to:
-the amount of money in the account.
-details of the amounts paid by the player to participate in each relevant gambling activity over a specified period of time.
The gambling website licensee must close the account when requested in writing to do so or after 13 months of inactivity on the account.
On closure, any credit in the account must be refunded to the customer or transferred to the social impact fund if customer cannot be contacted.
The gambling website operator must not close accounts of any person on the National Gambling Self-Exclusion Register.
Obligations under the Act will apply to licence holders, when they become licenced by GRAI, which will be on a phased basis.
