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The Irish Bookmakers Association (IBA) has warned the government against including a 0.5 percent to 1 percent increase in betting duty tax in the 2026 budget, fearing it will result in job losses and betting shop closures.

Ireland’s Budget 2026 Tax Strategy Group (TSG), chaired by the Department of Finance, released its on July 25, outlining options for tax policy changes, once again earmarking an increase to the betting duty.

“Increasing the betting duty rate by 0.5 percent is estimated to raise €26.5m in a full year, or a 1 percent increase estimated to raise €53m, while increasing betting intermediary duty commission by 5 percent to 30 percent would raise €800,000 in a full year,” according to the TSG.

TSG predicts that an increase will mainly impact large operators, partly as it also proposes to increase the betting duty tax relief from €50,000 to €65,000 per firm, which would principally benefit small independent retail bookmakers whose turnover is less than €2.5m.

“Revenue (Irish tax and customs) has expressed concerns with increasing the betting duty relief amount, as amongst other things it would only benefit an extremely limited number of operators while adding to the state aid compliance challenge associated with the relief,” said the TSG.

Sharon Byrne, IBA chairperson, doesn’t have insight into the government’s considerations but has provided it with data and analysis each year in its budget submission, which she hopes will be taken into account during the decision-making process.

Separately, Byrne told 91����ԭ�� GamblingCompliance that the IBA fully supports the newly established Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland (GRAI) but fears it will introduce "substantial compliance costs over time”.

“It is essential that these costs are fair and take into account the total tax contribution already made by the sector.  Until all the new compliance requirements and costs become clearer, it is difficult to estimate how much impact they might have on the number of shops or operators,” Byrne added.

Betting duty generated €141.2m in revenue for the Exchequer in 2024, compared to  €102.7m in 2024.

However, the increase was largely due to the rise in online betting duty receipts, which increased from €51.3m in 2024 to €95.4m in 2025. Conversely, retail betting receipts actually declined from €47.5m to €46.6m.

According to the IBA’s figures, the number of betting shops in Ireland has continued to fall from its peak of 1,386 in 2008 to 721 in July 2025.

The IBA blames the drop on rising costs, regulatory changes and the impact of an increased betting tax introduced in 2019.

In 2019, betting duty doubled from 1 percent to 2 percent. Duty on betting exchanges was also increased from 15 percent to 25 percent.

In the 2020 budget, a relief in the form of a tax credit of €50,000 was made available to all bookmakers and betting exchanges, to be applied on a single undertaking basis.

However, since then, 138 betting shops have closed, resulting in 700 job losses.

“Our own forecasts suggest that if the betting tax is increased further in the upcoming Budget 2026, we could face an additional 200 to 250 shop closures and a devastating 1,000 to 1,250 job losses,” the IBA warned in an update published on July 30.

The trade group warns this will impact local economies and threaten the €170m that over 6,000 employees and the shops contribute annually in taxes.