Irish Regulator Looking for Industry Input
Ireland’s gambling regulator, GRAI, is to set up a panel of industry consultants.
Key Facts:
- Ireland’s gambling regulator, GRAI, wants to set up a consultant panel
- Operators and other figures in the industry will get to put their opinions forward
- The aim is to ensure GRAI’s regulations meet the current market standards
On March 5th, Ireland’s new gambling regulator, GRAI, was officially established. Its main role is to award licenses to qualifying operators so they can legally offer gambling services to people in Ireland. The national lottery is the sole exception to this.
GRAI currently has seven staff members, including its CEO Anne Marie Caulfield. She has recently spoken about the regulator’s intention to set up an industry consultant panel. This would ensure that operators’ opinions are heard and that they get to play a role in establishing the standards of Ireland’s gambling market.
She wants people working in the industry to be involved in creating new regulations, standards and rules. She’s said the following about setting up an industry consultant panel:
It is our intention to involve the industry, making them aware of where we’re coming from and the measures that are to be introduced.– Anne Marie Caulfield, GRAI, GRAI CEO Comments on Consultant Panel, iGamingBusiness
She’s also said that a lot of the regulations that GRAI plans on introducing will go through consultation processes. These will involve people working in the gambling industry and members of the public who will also be affected by GRAI’s measures.
By involving the public, GRAI should be able to refine its measures and make them as effective as possible. This should improve gambling and sports betting experience for people of all backgrounds, no matter how much gambling they’ve done before.
GRAI will also set up a lived experience panel, whose members will be people who have experienced the harms and negative side effects of gambling. Caulfield has also mentioned establishing stakeholder panels in response to the number of measures GRAI has to deal with.
GRAI’s Lack of Experience
While GRAI has only just recently been set up, behind-the-scenes work leading to its launch has been underway for around two years. This has been carried out to ensure that when GRAI started operating, it could be fully effective and efficient from day one.
However, some have expressed concerns about the ability of GRAI to oversee gambling in Ireland, especially since none of its seven staff members have direct experience in gambling themselves. They do, however, have many years of experience in various relevant careers.
On this matter, Carlo Salizzo, an Irish lawyer specialising in gambling, has said the following:
Stakeholders I’ve spoken to are concerned that they are going to have to educate the regulator on how the industry works, in particular in the gaming sector. I think less so in other sectors where there may be more modern regulatory experience to draw on, but that’s not to say that there isn’t a steep learning curve there as well.– Carlo Salizzo, Gambling Lawyer Comments on GRAI, iGamingBusiness
If GRAI’s staff were all from the gambling industry, people like Salizzo wouldn’t be as concerned as they currently are. Although GRAI had plenty of time to prepare itself before its March 5th launch, the fact remains that the staff don’t actually have any gambling industry experience.
GRAI Will Not Tolerate Improper Lobbying
Caulfield has stressed that any stakeholder lobbying must be carried out properly when it comes to new legislation being created by GRAI. She is one of the designated officials that people have to approach when lobbying GRAI about its legislation.
Whenever someone lobbies GRAI through her, they’re legally required to register with the state who they’ve approached, what their intentions are and who their backers are. This is part of the Regulation of Lobbying Act created by the Irish government in 2015.
Anyone who tries to lobby an organisation such as GRAI without registering could face sanctions and fines of undetermined sizes. Caulfield has assured that she will make sure all people lobbying GRAI do so in the correct, legal way.
