The country of Ireland is one that has known gambling in one form or another for centuries.  Gambling there is a tradition and to this day millions of citizens bet on the horses every weekend or place wagers on their favorite football teams.  Poker and casino games are also very popular and bookmakers Paddy Power has been able to keep a hold of the traditional branding while expanding throughout Europe.  While many people have access to the Internet and play casino games online on an almost daily basis, many people have expressed interest in more land based casino development.   

This interest prompted the Irish Gaming and Leisure Association to commission a report and study the market potential for additional land based casinos in the country.  The report showed that new regulated land based casinos – as well as new online casinos – could generate a revenue of over $68 million and create somewhere between 3,000 and 10,000 new jobs between the two.   

According to John Lawlor, spokesperson for DKM, “Currently, the Irish land-based casino sector is of modest size, representing approximately 1.5 percent of total gambling GGR and employing in the region of 500 people.  Our assessment of the sector internationally indicates that there is scope for this to increase significantly in a properly-regulated environment.”

Jobs in Ireland – much like everywhere else in the world during this growing economic crisis that is being called an approaching ‘depression’ – are highly needed and the government ministers and economists have been looking for a way to find these positions for people needing work.  By regulating their online casinos, poker rooms, and other gambling establishments in order to create more, they will be certainly be opening the door way for workers.  The same goes for land based casinos which could employ as few as 300 to as many as 1,000 workers at a time.   

There have been no previous quantitative examination of the casino industry in the country prior to the report and the results were both sobering and exciting.  Ireland could be setting up a precedence that many other countries – such as the United States – may be willing to follow.  The Gaming and Leisure Association has already petitioned the Irish government to make public and regulate the casinos in an effort to start drawing more online and land based gambling operators into the country and begin operating their gaming networks there as a source of employment and revenue.