How we prepare the GRAI Quarterly Return

About this page

Foxs Bookmakers runs on a platform that serves several operators. Each operator holds, or has applied for, its own licence, and each will file its own Quarterly Return. The platform helps them do it: after each quarter it works out the figures from the operator's records and gives the operator a file to check and enter on the GRAI Operator Portal.

This page sets out, for the Authority, what that file contains, how each figure is worked out, and where we have had to interpret the Guidelines. We would welcome the Authority's view on any of it, in particular the points of interpretation.

The law and the Authority's guidance

Section 188 of the Gambling Regulation Act 2024 lets the Authority ask licensees, by notice in writing, for a compliance report so that it can confirm they are complying with their relevant obligations. The notice specifies the information to be provided and the form and manner of the report (section 188(2)). A licensee must comply within 14 days of the notice, or a longer period agreed in writing (section 188(4)).

The Authority's Quarterly Return Guidelines (15 October 2026) describe the return for business-to-consumer remote betting licensees: core turnover and bets, methods of payment, account information, and bets placed by category. Quarters run in UTC. The Guidelines say that the s.188 notice takes precedence over them.

The Authority's compliance page says the first return will be for the third quarter of 2026, submitted online through the GRAI Operator Portal by the account holder.

What the report contains

One file per operator and quarter, as a spreadsheet (CSV). It follows the Guidelines' tables in their order and uses their questions word for word:

• Core Turnover and Bets
• Methods of Payment
• Active, New, and Inactive/Reactivated Customer Accounts
• Self-Exclusion
• Closed Customer Accounts
• Customer Account Funds
• Customer Account Monetary Limits
• Bets Placed, by the Guidelines' categories

Every figure is followed by the basis it was worked out on. Two further tables are marked as not on the form: a breakdown of bets by the platform's own categories, so the mapping to the Guidelines' categories can be checked, and a table of checks, such as bets still open and figures we have not counted (for example time-limited exclusions).

Amounts are in euro with two decimal places, as the Guidelines require.

How it is produced

• It runs on its own at 04:00 on the 2nd day of January, April, July and October, for the quarter just ended, so that bets on the quarter's last events have settled.
• It works from the platform's own records: bets, the account ledger, identity verification, exclusions, account closures and limits. Nothing is keyed in.
• Once made, a quarter's file is kept as it was and not regenerated, so it remains a record of what the operator was given.
• The operator downloads it from its admin area, checks it, and enters the figures on the GRAI Operator Portal. The platform does not submit anything to the Authority.
• It covers remote betting only: the online accounts of customers. Bets taken in shops belong to in-person licences and are not included.

How each figure is worked out

How the platform's categories map to the Guidelines'

Lottery bets go to Lottery. Bets with no selections (free-text bets agreed with a trader) go to Other Betting. In-play bets go to Football in-play or Other in-play. Everything else maps by the category of its first event:

A category not listed goes to Other, and is flagged in the file so it can be checked.

Points of interpretation

Where the Guidelines left a choice, this is the reading the report uses. Each is stated in the file next to the figure it affects. We would ask the Authority to confirm them or tell us otherwise.

1. Turnover is counted when a bet is placed. A bet placed in the quarter counts in that quarter, with the winnings paid on it. A bet still open when the report is made counts with no winnings, and the file says how many there are. The alternative is to count each bet in the quarter it settled.
2. Only permanent self-exclusions count as self-exclusion. Shorter exclusions (24 hours to a year) are reported in the file's checks but not counted, pending the Authority's view on whether they count.
3. Monetary limits: both kinds are reported. The Guidelines define a monetary limit as one on the amount a customer may pay to participate. The platform has a spending limit, which is that, and a deposit limit. The file reports both, side by side.
4. Bets staff place for a customer count as remote. They are placed on the customer's online account. The file reports how many there are.
5. Closures at the customer's request. The platform records who closed an account but not why, so the figure is the accounts customers closed themselves. The Guidelines count closures of verified accounts; the file reports how many closed accounts were never verified.
6. Inactivity. The platform does not close accounts after 13 months' inactivity. We would ask whether the Authority expects accounts to be closed then.
7. The previous calendar year is included in every quarter's return, as the Guidelines' table shows.

Known limitations of the records

• Bets of accounts deleted at the customer's request are deleted with them, and are missing from every figure. The file reports how many such accounts there are.
• Staff approvals under the earlier verification process are dated only from 14 October 2025.
• The figures are as they stood when the file was made. A bet settled afterwards changes the turnover the platform would report for that quarter, but not the file.

Where it is worked out

For anyone checking our work, including the Authority:

Official publications

• Gambling Regulation Act 2024, section 188 (Irish Statute Book)
• GRAI, Quarterly Return Guidelines (15 October 2026, PDF)
• GRAI, Compliance (the Authority's announcement of the Quarterly Return)

This page was last updated on 19 October 2026.