Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 22 March 2022

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality

General Scheme of the Gambling Regulation Bill: Discussion (Resumed)

Mr. Barry Grant:

I thank the Deputy. This is an issue with online gambling globally and it is a nut that many regulators, jurisdictions and governments are trying to crack. I understand technologies are becoming available whereby databases of licensed operators within a certain jurisdiction can be set up and then any operators that are not licensed within that jurisdiction can be geoblocked at a country level. It would require help from the Internet service providers but my understanding is that it is already being done in some countries - possibly some of the Scandinavian countries - and that the technology does exist to make that possible.