The Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland has released findings from a comprehensive stakeholder consultation to guide the new Social Impact Fund's strategic direction.
Apr 21, 2026 · 4 min read
The Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland (GRAI) has published its Report on the National Stakeholder Consultation regarding Social Impact Fund needs on 19 September 2025, marking a pivotal step in developing Ireland's coordinated response to gambling-related harm.
The consultation, conducted in partnership with Pobal, gathered insights from 162 questionnaire respondents and engaged 54 participants across five focus group workshops. This comprehensive exercise aimed to inform the strategic direction of the new Social Impact Fund, which represents what GRAI characterises as a critical opportunity to deliver system-level responses to gambling harm.
The mixed-methods consultation captured perspectives from individuals with lived experience of gambling addiction, affected family members, gambling counsellors, residential and community-based treatment providers, NGOs and academic researchers. Five tailored stakeholder questionnaires complemented the workshop format to generate what officials describe as rich qualitative insights.
Participants identified substantial gaps in Ireland's current approach to gambling harm, with findings highlighting limited scale, inconsistent coordination, and significant service gaps across the national response framework.
The consultation revealed strong consensus that while valuable work exists, the absence of a dedicated national framework and unified referral pathways represents a critical weakness. Stakeholders viewed the Social Impact Fund as a foundational mechanism to strengthen infrastructure, address service gaps, and invest in sustainable responses to gambling-related harm.
Important
This consultation represents the first stage in developing the fund's investment strategy, with a broader public consultation planned to address the structure of statutory annual contributions from licensed gambling operators.
The report provides a grounded, context-specific needs analysis recognising what GRAI identifies as the escalating scale and complexity of gambling-related harm in Ireland.
Read the full report: Here
Social Impact Fund Development Timeline
The Social Impact Fund represents a two-stage consultation process. Following this stakeholder needs assessment, GRAI will launch a separate public consultation specifically focused on determining the contribution structure and payment mechanisms for licensed operators. This staged approach ensures both service delivery needs and funding sustainability are thoroughly evaluated before implementation.
The consultation findings coincide with broader regulatory developments, including Minister O'Callaghan signing the Commencement Order for Licensing, signalling accelerated implementation of Ireland's gambling regulatory framework.
The Social Impact Fund consultation establishes baseline expectations for industry contributions to harm mitigation. With statutory annual contributions from licensed operators under development, the findings provide operators with early intelligence on priority intervention areas and service gaps requiring investment.
The emphasis on coordinated, system-level responses suggests upcoming requirements will favour collaborative approaches over fragmented corporate social responsibility initiatives.
According to GRAI.
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Written by
Viktoriia KononovaContent Partnership Manager
Viktoriia has been with We–Right™ Factory since 2022, managing content partnerships across regulated iGaming markets. With a copywriting background, she understands both the creative and compliance sides of iGaming content production. On the blog, Viktoriia writes about responsible gambling content, regulatory alignment, and practical challenges of producing content for multiple jurisdictions.
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