Ex-Paddy Power Chief Urges 40% Tax on Online Casinos in Ireland

^{The Department of Finance in Dublin, where the letter calling for a 40% online casino tax was sent ahead of Budget 2027. (Photo: Conoronmaps / Wikimedia Commons)}

Stewart Kenny, the co-founder and former chief executive of Paddy Power, has written to the Minister for Finance urging a 40% tax on online gaming and casino operators, arguing Ireland's current 23% VAT-based charge leaves the country under-taxed compared with the United Kingdom.

The letter, seen by The Irish Times, is co-signed by three addiction specialists and researchers: Prof Colin O'Gara, clinical professor of psychiatry at University College Dublin; Dr Frank Houghton, principal investigator of the Tobacco, Alcohol and Gambling Research Group at the Technological University of the Shannon; and Niall McNamee, a former Offaly county footballer.

UK Comparison Anchors the Tax Case

The letter points directly to the UK's own tax move as the benchmark Ireland should follow. The UK government recently raised its remote gaming duty, which applies to profits from online casino and slot products, from 21% to 40%.

Ireland instead applies a 23% VAT rate to gross gambling yield from these products, a rate the letter describes as comparatively lenient. Kenny's letter calls for the government to match the UK's new 40% rate as a minimum starting point.

'As an absolute minimum, it is necessary that the Irish Government immediately follows the example of the UK and introduces a new minimum levy of 40% on gross gambling yield for online casinos,' the letter states, according to The Irish Times. 'We believe in subsequent budgets the online casino taxes should be raised further to mirror taxation levels on tobacco, which are close to 80%.'

Letter Cites DCU Research on UK Market Trends

The letter was accompanied by a report from Dublin City University economist Tony Foley examining how the UK's online casino and slot market has evolved, which the report concludes is a pattern now taking hold in Ireland too. It estimates the UK gambles an estimated £84 billion a year on online slot machines alone.

Kenny, who was Paddy Power's chief executive from 1988 to 2002, resigned from the company's board in 2016, saying at the time that he objected to the business profiting from online gambling addicts. He has since become a regular critic of the industry's marketing practices.

Paddy Power's parent company, Flutter Entertainment, also owns Betfair in the UK and FanDuel in the US, and is the world's largest listed gambling and online gaming operator by revenue.

Timing Ahead of Budget 2027

The intervention lands weeks ahead of Budget 2027, when the government sets tax policy for the year ahead. Irish gambling regulation has already been under review since the Gambling Regulation Act established the country's new regulator, and Kenny's letter argues tax policy should move in step with that regulatory overhaul.

The Department of Finance has not yet responded publicly to the letter. Any change to gambling tax rates would need to be confirmed in the Budget itself, expected in the coming weeks.