GRAI Threatens With High Court Action Against Polymarket

Anne Maria Caulfield, Chief Executive of the GRAI, explained that the move was centred around classifying prediction markets as gambling services, which would bring far more protection to customers. 

She said: "For the vast majority of cases where we've intervened, they have withdrawn their sites.

“But in the instance where they don't do so, we can go to the High Court and get a blocking order for them, a blocking order for access to the site and also in relation to the funding involved. 

“Once those sectors are licensed with us, a whole swathe of protections start to stand up in terms of consumers. 

“We are standing up our compliance regime in order to go out and to inspect and to make sure that that is happening.”

Child protection is cited as a key reason for these changes. The involvement of children in gambling carries a sentence of up to eight years in prison, and failure to adhere to the regulations can result in fines of up to €20m or 10% of turnover.

Tánaiste Simon Harris has expressed concerns that platforms like Polymarket could be used for money laundering.

He said: “What seems to now be developing at a global scale, and indeed a rapid pace now, is a kind of wild, wild west where people are placing bets in the form of a cryptocurrency, which is secretive, murky, and in an unregulated manner.”

The GRAI’s threat of High Court action demonstrates a zero-tolerance for these ‘murky’ areas of legislation. Further changes, including licenses for on-site gambling and gaming, will follow in the near future.