How to Choose the Best Online Casino in Ireland – a Players Guide
What exactly plays such a crucial role in finding a suitable online casino site? Remote casinos make up a big sector of the gambling scene in Ireland and continue to see significant growth as well, with projections that the gambling market will reach €1.2 billion during the 2025/26 financial year.
Modern technology and continuously expanding customer base are fuelling a lot of that growth. But picking the best sites to play at can be confusing because search engines will turn up endless random results. Because safety and security should always be at the front of anyone’s mind, it’s rarely just a case of jumping on the first site you come across.
A more detailed analysis of the elements of online casinos’ sites allows users to scrutinise different platforms better, ultimately leading to a better selection. This step is often under-utilised, but it can be a massive time saver down the road.
How Big Is Ireland’s Gambling Industry?
Recent research estimates that almost half of the Irish population engage in some form of gambling. As with many regions around the world, the highest share of the market is taken up by lottery, with around four in ten people participating in either a full lottery draw or scratch cards.
That’s compared to approximately one in ten placing a wager on sports or the large Irish dog and horse racing scenes. But in terms of revenue generated within the Irish online gaming market, things read a little differently. Online Casinos generate a higher amount, and that particular area has seen a year-on-year increase since 2017 to around €600 million.
Online sports betting generates around €400 million and the lottery around €200 million. Remarkably Ireland’s online gambling industry makes up around 2.6% of Europe’s total online gambling industry.
Selecting Sites
Part of the engagement growth is people having a great deal of choice when it comes to playing platforms. There are so many available that it is helpful to use the information on review sites, and a good place to look for them is by scanning what isavailable on AskGamblers, which lists top sites in Ireland.
There is in-depth information about licensed platforms, which helps greatly with security and responsible gambling practices. Details about game variety, welcome bonus offers and payment options for all sites also help with comparison — so individuals can select a platform that fits their gambling preferences.
The growth of the online industry exists because it is meeting demand — the sheer turnover in money gambled within the country indicates that. Also, people just want safe, convenient access to gambling options in a country which has only a handful of brick-and-mortar gambling establishments (most of which are based in Dublin) as commercial casinos are not permitted.
Licensing
The first and most important step in this online casino selection process is ensuring the site is licensed and regulated. This is just the first step of player protection — but it’s a big one because it means the operator has been approved to offer their services to Irish players.
There are a lot of legal hoops to jump through first before getting the licence. After one is awarded, there are constant checks for game fairness and software auditing that happens to ensure the operator continues to meet the high standards to retain the licence, or penalties will be handed out.
Licensing at both online casinos and sportsbooks that cover everything from rugby and football to GAA and Formula One can be checked on the sites themselves, with information posted in the footer area and somewhere in the site’s terms and conditions.
Bonuses and Payments
It’s worth checking what payment methods are accepted and whether there are any transaction fees issued by the operator. This isn’t particularly common, but for some payment methods, there could be a processing charge fee applied.
That’s typically a small percentage of the withdrawal amount, which is capped to a certain amount. Withdrawal times will vary greatly and there will also be other things like minimum and maximum amounts on deposits and withdrawals to consider.
Bonuses are an interesting part of the online casino equation for Irish players. The welcome bonus is the most prominent type of such offer — but they are usually tied up heavily in terms and conditions, particularly with a high rollover requirement of anywhere from 25x to 45x, and sometimes more.
It’s advisable not to be swayed solely by the “value” of a matched deposit offer when signing up because they are one-time deals that have no bearing on the day-to-day experience you will get on a platform.
Game Selection
Away from the mechanics of holding an account at a safe platform, the playing experience counts for a lot. One of the main things that online casino review sites do, for example, is reference the number of games available in a particular casino site’s portfolio, which is typically between 500 and 1000.
Because all sites usually have more games than a player would ever play, it’s about narrowing down what options fit your specific gaming preferences. That can be done by considering the favourite type of slots that you most commonly play, finding games from your favourite developer, or checking out what variety of live roulette tables there are, if that’s your thing.
Search around to see what variety of those are available. But also think about games that you may be willing to explore as well moving forward, like crash games perhaps, game show style features and instant wins. Most of the time on a site will be spent playing games, so ensure the right ones are there for you.
In Conclusion
To help get off to a good footing at online casinos, it’s worth checking out review sites and looking for any actual user reviews that have been posted about a particular site. Expert guides can help push you towards the best sites and are going to be valuable.
The starting place is really understanding what you want to get out of the online casino experience, from payment methods to game types. Then you can slowly layer on the other elements that will impact the user experience, from how fast live dealer table streams load, to menu navigation, search tools, and mobile app availability.