Each month, the Central Bank of Ireland publishes data on how people are spending their money using their debit and credit cards.
It breaks it down into minute detail by category, and its monthly bulletin will single out statistics of note.
Here’s what it had to say on October’s 2025 figures in the context of spending on “entertainment” rising that month: “The main merchant contributing to the rise in entertainment spending was Betting/Casino Gambling, which increased by 11.23% (€20.28m from September).
“When compared to October 2024, spending has spiked — increasing by 20.12% year-over-year.”
From what it had to say, it’s clear that huge sums are involved when it comes to gambling in Ireland. It’s equally clear that spending is on the up.
For a majority of those who gamble, it won’t lead to major problems such as addiction.
But for a sizeable portion of people who do gamble, it can and will.
When it comes to those who work in supporting problem gamblers, seeing statistics like this “spiking” is a stark reminder of what so many people in Ireland are facing.
Barry Grant, an addiction counsellor and project manager at Extern Problem Gambling, said that even during bad economic times in Ireland, gambling is seen as something that is “recession proof”.
“Not that we have [a recession] now, but most people will say there are very serious cost-of-living issues people are facing right now with housing, the price of butter, and everything in between,” he said.
“This 20% rise [in gambling spend] is a substantial one coming from a very high base.
“Some of it will be recreational, but also people are experiencing a lot of harm.
“In a cost-of-living crisis-type situation, some people would turn to gambling as a means to make ends meet.
“If their food shop increases by 50%, they might see it as a way to split the difference.
“There are also 300,000 in arrears on their electricity bills. That would concern me.”
Data from the Economic and Social Research Institute, commissioned by the Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland, has suggested 130,000 people in Ireland are problem gamblers.
Hundreds of thousands more experience “negative behaviours” associated with their gambling.
For those affected by a gambling addiction, it’s estimated that at least six more people are indirectly affected by it — be they family or friends — putting people in debt, and sometimes losing the trust of loved ones.
The regulator’s work has been multifaceted since it began, but not all of the sections of the legislation tackling problem gambling, including advertising curbs, have been enacted as of yet.
It plans to begin its licensing regime this year, where betting companies offering products to customers here must be licensed. If licensees break the regulator’s rules, enforcement can follow.
In the meantime, however, gambling spending continues at pace and is on the rise, according to the Central Bank figures.
“We’re heading into 2026, and gambling is still seen as a deficit of will and a moral failing,” said Colin O’Gara, a consultant psychiatrist and head of addiction services at St John of God Hospital.
“We need to move the dial in terms of our understanding of gambling disorder as a biological driven brain disease,” he says.
It’s a major public health issue, and it sits alongside other addictions.
Mr O’Gara said that the regulator is doing good work, but it must contend with the “behemoth task” it faces.
He said: “This is such a wide-spanning area. And the proliferation of gambling has had a two-decade head start.”
Consultant psychiatrist Colin O’Gara is the head of addiction services at St John of God Hospital. Picture: Marc O’Sullivan
The proliferation he’s referring to is the explosion in online gambling. But even then, the landscape has changed drastically.
Mr Grant said that the age profile of those coming forward for help with problem gambling had been people in their 30s, but this is starting to skew significantly towards a younger demographic.
“When you’re seeing 18-, 19-, and 20-year-olds presenting, there’s been a rapid onset of problems in a short space of time,” he said.
“It’s a relatively new thing, we’re seeing a cryptocurrency being used on a lot of gambling sites.
“Not the household name [gambling sites], but some more fringe ones are accepting stakes in crypto.”
He said that the main banks in Ireland and Revolut have put in an optional block on gambling for customers, but a person can “get around” that by buying crypto and then using that to bet.
Alongside that, Mr O’Gara has concerns about the topic hitting the headlines in so many other sectors over the last year: AI.
He thinks the influence of artificial intelligence (AI) and how it will interface with the gambling industry is very important going forward, and something the regulator should be proactive on.
AI does get a brief mention in the regulator’s statement of strategy through to 2027, with it saying AI will be leveraged to “drive compliance with our legislative remit, and enables the authority to effectively regulate a fast-evolving gambling sector”.
Mr O’Gara said the potential is there for AI to be used in a negative way, but also a positive one in that it could be used to help identify customers who may face problems with gambling based on the way they are behaving.
“It will help with the ability to see who will lose the most money and continue gambling,” he said.
“It’s the use of AI in a maladaptive way I’m concerned about. I’d like to see it used to protect people who will run into difficulties.
I’d like there to be transparency around the use of AI, and transparency about identifying problem gamblers at an early stage.
“The data is there, and models will be able to predict who is gambling in a harmful way. With the co-operation of the companies, I’d like to see the regulator be able to request this data from them.”
On the other side of the coin, Mr Grant said that gamblers could also be using AI in an attempt to “beat the bookies”.
“Clients will tell me they use ChatGPT for all sorts of things,” he said.
“Why would they not use it to do that too?”
As Ireland moves to regulate a space that Britain has been regulating for 20 years, there’s a cautionary tale unfolding across the Atlantic for what impacts rapid and unregulated gambling could have.
Where it had been illegal just a few years ago, online gambling is now permitted in many states in the US.
In just a few short years, gambling has so embedded itself into the discourse around sports in America that betting odds appear alongside the plethora of stats shown during broadcasts for popular games such as American football.
Celebrities appear in their advertisements. Young men watching sports in bars talk about the “parlays” they’ve bet on — what are known as accumulator bets in Ireland.
Researchers there say it’s leading to a surge in people seeking support for help with gambling addiction.
Mr Grant said that what is happening over there is the “gamblification of as many things as possible”, with new prediction markets on real-world events like elections.
Such betting markets have traditionally been referred to in this part of the world as “novelty bets”.
“There’s a number of different things coming together to create a potent gambling product over there,” Mr O’Gara said.
“It’s aggressively marketed.
Reports from the medical community are starting to come through on the problems they’re facing.
“It’s something we warned would happen.
“In terms of the US, it’s very concerning. Various iterations of gambling have developed further over there, which will no doubt be fed out into other countries.
“Daily fantasy sports. FanDuel. To think our children won’t be affected by that would be very naive.”
As both men are at the coalface of supporting those affected by problem gambling, it is no surprise they are keenly watching how the regulator will administer the “social impact fund”.
As part of its remit, the Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland will use money that must be given to it by the gambling companies to invest in research, education, training, gambling treatment, and public awareness to tackle gambling harm.
“A hell of a lot of people are affected by this,” Mr Grant said.
“And we’ve nowhere near enough provision. Not to be self-serving, but we’ll be applying to it for funding.
“We can’t come anywhere near meeting the demand that’s out there.”
Mr O’Gara, meanwhile, called it a “hidden disease” which needs a very strong outreach programme to match it.
“We really should look at commissioning a nationwide report on what’s needed in terms of in-patient and outpatient treatment services,” he said.
“I know some work is being done on that. We also need education campaigns to try to entice people to come for treatment.
“When they come for help, the worst case scenario is that there are no services. It’s not going to be cheap. But will there be political will to provide meaningful services?
The gambling product has proliferated and pushed ahead with huge development and significant profit. All the while, the harm continues.
Advertising is another factor that will be an important part of the curbs being placed on the gambling industry here, with yet-to-be-enacted restrictions on TV ads such as a watershed to get rid of the ubiquitous advertising during matches shown in the daytime.
Mr Grant said: “It’s the normalisation of it, every single platform a person goes on. Podcasts with nothing to do with gambling.
When ads come on, it’s for gambling stuff. Social media, radio, TV — you name it.
“One of the parts of the [gambling] act is a section that says a person should only be able to see gambling advertising on social media if they follow that company.
“That’s a huge one.
“For people in recovery, it’s so difficult to teach an algorithm you don’t want to see gambling adverts anymore where you can get the product for free, like free bets or free spins, instantaneously through an app on your phone.
“For those with alcohol problems, they can’t squirt a pint down your mouth through the phone.”