Irish National Lottery wants bookmakers banned from taking bets on its draws
The operator says lottery betting costs it €289m a year in lost ticket sales.
Ireland.- The Irish National Lottery is urging the Government to clamp down on bookmakers offering bets on its draws. The operator, FDJ United’s Premier Lotteries Ireland, claims the practice is eroding its business and costing it around €289m a year in lost ticket sales.
According to Premier Lotteries, if the secondary lottery betting market didn’t exist, it could have directed an extra €81m to community initiatives in areas such as sport and the arts in 2024. A report on the lottery’s socioeconomic impact highlights research suggesting that wagers worth €828m were placed with bookmakers on lottery draws last year. It says that 35 per cent of those who bet in this way would have bought official tickets if the option were unavailable.
Premier Lotteries Ireland argues that this regulatory gap reduces its licence’s value by between €118m and €250m. An economic study by consultancy Indecon estimates that retailers lose about €238m in sales due to lottery betting, leading to 1,929 fewer jobs and €12.7m in lost tax revenue.
Chief executive Cian Murphy told The Irish Times that the parallel lottery betting market is “only slightly smaller than the actual draw” and operates in a “grey zone”, being tolerated despite being neither clearly legal nor illegal.
See also: Eurasia Sports to enter Irish gambling market with focus on “pro bettors”
With the new Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland preparing to issue the first new Irish gambling licences, Murphy fears the practice could soon be legitimised. He cautioned that, given the rise of online gambling, legalisation might encourage operators to expand further by investing in marketing and new products.
“We are concerned that they will legalise it,” he said, while pointing out that the UK and 25 of 27 EU member states have already banned such betting through legislation or regulation.
“The legal advice we have for Ireland is that either of those routes will be robust. We are not being prescriptive on how it needs to be banned, but we believe it needs to be banned.”
Despite the competition from lottery betting, the report found that the Irish lottery still generated €2.1bn in economic output in 2024, contributed €239.3m to good causes. Retail sales totalled €700m. Efforts to curb secondary markets have been made before, including a 2018 bill introduced by Jim O’Callaghan, then Fianna Fáil’s justice spokesman and now Minister for Justice.
