Ryanair is to offer casino and poker games on its flights

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Created on Monday, 06 July 2009 08:38

The CEO of budget airline Ryanair Michael O’Leary has said that the company will soon be offering in-air gambling service (casino, poker and bingo games) on some of their scheduled flights.

They are already selling lottery tickets on board to increase revenue and rumours were circulating not long ago that you would need to pay to use the loo- so this new suite of services is not entirely unexpected. Another plan to introduce higher chargers for fat passengers, which was suprisingly popular with its customers, has been shelved for fear of being labelled obesist (is that a proper word- Ed.) A spokesman from the low cost carrier stated, “Ryanair’s onboard gambling systems are still being worked on. We expect them to go live within 3 to 5 years.”

In 2005 O’Leary said he thought in flight gambling could mean the end of air fares.

Any gambling done in the air must happen within international airspace to fall within UK Gambling Commission rules. O’Leary reckons that he won´t have any issues in getting the necessary licences, if indeed any are required. The rumours are that Jackpot Joy Casino and gaming are working with them - they run the online casino on the booking website Ryanair.com.

Noel Hayden, CEO for Gamesys who run Jackpotjoy.com said, “This partnership is fantastic news for Ryanair’s passengers who will now enjoy Jackpotjoy.com’s second to none gaming experience.”......did he say that, or was that the PR agency?.....dunno.

All I know is that I just flew back from Malta with Ryanair and I think I must have been boarding the plane with the Lions rugby team, as it was a total scrum down. And I went to the loo twice as it was still free (wanted to get my money´s worth while I could, I figured that was a 2 pound gain).