Gaming and Lotteries Act 1956
The Gaming and Lotteries Act 1956 is the Irish statute, No. 2 of 1956, that governs local gaming and lotteries, permitting only limited forms of each under Garda permits, District Court certificates and Revenue licences. It was amended substantially by the Gaming and Lotteries (Amendment) Act 2019. The Gambling Regulation Act 2024 repeals it, but that repeal takes effect only as the relevant provisions are commenced, so parts of the 1956 framework still apply to gaming and lottery permits until the commencement order covering them is made.
What the 1956 Act Actually Permits
The Act starts from prohibition and then carves out exceptions, which is why reading it as a licensing code for casinos gets it wrong. According to the Department of Justice, it allows lotteries outside the National Lottery and what the Department calls a very limited form of gaming, meaning playing a game of skill or chance for money.
Gaming permits under section 9A
Section 9A, inserted by section 4 of the 2019 Amendment Act, lets a person apply to the Garda superintendent for the district where the premises are for a gaming permit. The application must reach the superintendent at least 60 days before the gaming begins, and a decision is due within 28 days of receipt. The published information note sets the stake at no more than €10 per game and the total prize at no more than €3,000 per game.
A permit cannot be issued for gaming by machine, or for any game where the chances of all players, including the banker, are not equal.
Amusement halls and lotteries
Machine gaming falls under Part III instead, and it needs three separate approvals: a resolution from the local authority, a certificate from the District Court under section 15, and a licence from the Revenue Commissioners. Under section 15(2), the court cannot grant the certificate unless the premises also offer entertainment other than gaming. Lotteries run under Part IV, with lottery permits issued under section 27B, and the Minister told the Dáil in June 2026 that the Act provides for once-off lotteries worth up to €360,000 in a twelve-month period for a charitable or philanthropic purpose.
Repeal by the Gambling Regulation Act 2024
The Gambling Regulation Act 2024, enacted on 23 October 2024, names the Gaming and Lotteries Act 1956 among the statutes it repeals, alongside the Betting Act 1931 and the Gaming Act 1744. Repeal in the long title is not repeal in practice, though, because each part of the 2024 Act needs a commencement order before it bites.
S.I. No. 31/2026 brought a large body of the 2024 Act into force on 5 February 2026, enabling the Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland to grant licences, but Matheson’s August 2026 update listed certain Part 5 provisions on gaming licences and lottery licences as not yet commenced. In a parliamentary reply on 20 October 2026, the Minister described the 1956 Act as something the 2024 Act will repeal once the relevant provisions are commenced, which means the permit regime above still governs those activities until that order is made. We found no published commencement order covering those provisions when this entry was prepared.
The transition is spelled out in the 2024 Act itself.
Sections 249 to 254 carry over gaming permits under Part II, gaming licences under Part III and lottery permits under Part IV, and section 254 deals with the registers of those permits and licences, so a permit already granted does not simply vanish on the day of repeal.
What the 1956 Act Is Confused With
The most frequent mistake is treating the 1956 Act as the law that licenses online casinos, and it is not: its permits are tied to a Garda district, a premises or a District Court area, and nothing in its permit structure contemplates a remote operator. Remote gambling licences are issued under Part 5 of the 2024 Act by the GRAI, which is a separate regime with its own conditions on advertising, inducements and safeguarding.
A second confusion is with the National Lottery, which the 1956 Act expressly does not cover; that sits under the National Lottery Act 2013.
The third concerns protection. A site holding a licence from the Malta Gaming Authority, Kahnawake or Curaçao is not authorised under either Irish Act by that fact, and a foreign licence does not give an Irish player the complaints route the GRAI provides. What I check first, whenever a reader cites “Irish law” on a gambling question, is which of the two Acts and which commenced section they actually mean.
