Self-exclusion
Self-exclusion is a request you make to a gambling operator to block you from betting or gaming with it for a set period, which you cannot cancel early on request. During that time the operator should refuse your deposits and bets and stop sending you marketing. It differs from a time-out, which lasts days or weeks, because self-exclusion runs for months or years.
How self-exclusion works in Ireland
For now, self-exclusion here works operator by operator. You ask each company separately, usually through account settings, live chat or email, and one site’s block does nothing on another.
Period lengths are set by each operator rather than by a single Irish standard, so read the options before you choose. What I check first is whether the shortest period on offer is long enough to matter.
Short periods rarely help.
The National Gambling Exclusion Register
The Gambling Regulation Act 2024 provides for a National Gambling Exclusion Register, run by the Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland. Once it is live, one entry will cover every GRAI-licensed operator.
A licensed operator would then be barred from letting you register, taking a payment for gambling from you, or contacting you in a way that promotes gambling, and a breach is an offence. Until the register opens, you still need to exclude with each site yourself, and grai.ie is where its launch will be confirmed.
It will not reach unlicensed sites.
Self-exclusion versus other limits
Readers often confuse self-exclusion with deposit limits or a cooling-off break. A deposit limit caps how much you put in but leaves you free to play, while a time-out pauses the account briefly and then lifts by itself.
Self-exclusion is the only one of these built to stop you entirely, so pick it when a limit has already failed you once.
If gambling is causing you harm right now, the National Gambling Helpline is free on 1800 936 725.
