Gambling is closed to anyone under eighteen, and it brings risks of debt, withdrawal from other people and addiction. Nothing listed on this page costs money.
Where to get help
Call 1800 753 753 for the National Gambling Helpline; the bank's help page lists it, alongside Gamble Aware Ireland, under its Irish resources.
From the regulator there is public advice, help for people whose gambling has become a problem, and a section on identifying what sets a session off.
Together with the HSE addiction services it has produced family-facing guidance on recognising gambling in a child, aimed at parents rather than at the industry.
What the regulator says it is for
On its own account, the body exists to keep gambling regulated and fair, to set standards and watch them, and to shield the people most at risk, children above all.
Part of the job, it says, is curbing some advertising and some inducements while making the harms better known.
Duties under the Act attach to a holder from the moment that holder is licensed, phase by phase; whole categories of operator therefore sit outside those duties for now.
The research worth knowing
The regulator has put out survey findings produced by the ESRI from a representative panel of a thousand gamblers.
One result matters here. Of those who open an online account for horse or sports betting, close to 40% later take up other forms: casino games online, slots, scratch cards.
If that progression is the pattern, then a control acting on a whole category is worth more than a decision made brand by brand.
The two app controls that work
The first tool refuses any card payment classified under a gambling merchant category. Activation is instant, circumvention impossible while it holds, and removal can take two full days.
Learn its edges. Nothing but card payments falls within it, which leaves transfers and payments made inside someone else's app untouched. And a merchant filing its activity under a different code escapes it.
The second tool targets a single site you have paid before. Five of them may stand together, spread over three merchants at most in a thirty-day window, and two names are exempt from it: Apple and Google.
The two that look like controls
Lock card-not-present payments and you still leave counter payments, plus both wallets, perfectly able to spend.
Turning off contactless on the physical card leaves both wallets working too.
Since neither one looks at merchant category, neither halts a gambling payment. Anyone building their own guardrails deserves to know that before trusting them.
A budget instead of a switch
Set a monthly ceiling on the card and anything beyond your figure is declined, which serves a budget rather than a full stop.
Above your own settings, the bank applies a rolling weekly ceiling of about €29,900 (the equivalent of 25,000 pounds sterling) to the betting and gambling category. That is not personal protection, but it exists.
If the difficulty is someone else's
A setting on your account does nothing to anyone else's. The helpline above takes calls from family and friends, and the regulator's family-facing material is written for exactly that situation.
Sources
- help.revolut.com, Irish locale (en-IE), 13 Nov 2026: gambling support
- help.revolut.com, Irish locale (en-IE), 13 Nov 2026: how the gambling block works
- help.revolut.com, Irish locale (en-IE), 13 Nov 2026: blocking and unblocking a merchant
- help.revolut.com, Irish locale (en-IE), 13 Nov 2026: card security settings
- help.revolut.com, Irish locale (en-IE), 13 Nov 2026: card payment fees and limits
- Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland: role of the regulator, phased obligations, public advice, work with HSE addiction services, and ESRI research, read 13 November 2026.
18+ only.
- Conversion of the limits published in pounds: ECB reference rate of 13 November 2026 (1 pound = €1.1968), rounded