Unregulated overseas gambling websites are allowing children to sign up for betting services and games, a regulator has warned.
The newly established Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland (GRAI) is developing a gambling regulatory regime and taking over existing regulatory functions that were handled by Revenue.
Asked about recent Irish Times reports that showed how a high-profile betting service, Pro Sports Advice, was promoting the use of a gambling website that claimed to be regulated in Anjouan, the GRAI said it was “keenly aware of the dangers posed to Irish consumers from black market gambling sites from Anjouan and from other jurisdictions”.
The Central Bank of Comoros, which governs financial regulation in Anjouan, said this week that a licence issued to Gambana, a site promoted by Rob Heneghan and his Pro Sports Advice tipping company, was “fraudulent”.
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More than 1,300 Anjouan gambling licences claim to have been issued by an entity that the Comoros Central Bank says is acting “illegally”.
Pro Sports Advice encouraged followers of its Telegram channel to use Gambana to bet on Premier League matches but it has since deleted those posts.
The regulator warned of the long-term dangers of unregulated overseas gambling sites being accessed by children.
“When gambling is unlicensed, oversight is removed and the risk of harm is radically increased,” it said. “Black market sites make gambling accessible to children, which research shows doubles the chance of problem gambling later in life. Adults who engage with black market sites risk their personal data and financial information being compromised, and all of the protections that apply when people gamble in a regulated market are taken away.”
The regulator said a core part of gambling regulation was the imposition of age limits that impose substantial penalties on regulated bookmakers that breach these rules.
It said Ireland has the highest penalties in Europe for offences involving underage gambling, with potential sentences of up to eight years’ imprisonment for gambling that involves children.
“Age and identity verification is required to open an account; it is also required for money laundering compliance,” it said.
“Unregulated operators, by contrast, are undeterred by the threat of licence loss, and for the most part they operate extraterritorially, making it very difficult to effectively enforce the law against them. Many explicitly advertise themselves as ‘no KYC (Know Your Client)’ platforms, meaning players can deposit, play, and cash out winnings without providing any identification or proof of address. By removing the age-verification barriers that exist in the regulated market, these operators effectively make gambling accessible to children.”
The UK-based Racing TV recently ran a feature on black market gambling sites that highlighted a failure to verify the identities of customers.
Alex Wood, a former fraudster who now co-hosts BBC Scam Secrets, showed how he was able to sign up to Gambana using the name of Red Rum, an Irish racehorse that died in 1995.
Wood was commissioned by Flutter, the owner of Paddy Power, to carry out his research. Regulated bookmakers have campaigned against increased betting taxes in the UK, which they say will drive punters towards black-market gambling sites.
The GRAI said it is developing “a robust enforcement framework” to address contraventions of the Gambling Regulation Act 2024. It said this will include “proactively tackling illegal activity by unlicensed entities who seek to circumvent Irish legal requirements”.
“It should be noted that providing online gaming is not yet unlawful in Ireland,” it said. “However, bookmaking can only be provided remotely by licensed operators, and consumers should ensure that they engage only with bookmakers licensed by Revenue or by the GRAI.”
The first remote betting licences are expected to be issued by the authority in July.
