Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin will this week publish legislation overhauling the rules governing the national lottery.

Mr Howlin has already signalled his intention to relax the rules governing online sales in order to increase the saleability of the licence which will be auctioned off early next year.

Up the now the State’s lottery business, which is currently operated by An Post, has been severely restricted in its online operations, with players obliged to go through a cumbersome offline registration process. As a result less than 3 per cent of ticket sales come from internet trade .

The draft legislation governing the new licence, which was approved by Cabinet on Tuesday, will also set out various player safeguards, including strict age-verification systems and self-exclusion opportunities.