The continuing uncertainty over Ireland’s future gambling laws is posing significant questions for the country’s operators, particularly following a recommendation that virtual sports should no longer be offered in betting shops.
Virtual sports can be found in bookmakers across the country but, given the keenness among lawmakers to create a new framework for the regulated betting sector, the integrity of that offering has been called into question.
The suggestion is that if virtual sports are no longer a fixed odds betting product but are determined by an RNG and can therefore set to a percentage payout, then this activity is classed as gaming rather than betting.
The recommendation put forward after committee hearings into last year’s Gaming Control Bill was for an outright ban on such products in betting offices. This will no doubt be a major concern for the country’s bookmakers, which represent the largest group within the country’s gaming industry.
