Vienna (OTS) – In the Austrian Gambling Act, the legislator has stipulated that poker is a game of chance. The legal consequence is that in Austria the right to conduct games of chance (including online games of chance) is reserved for the federal government. The Federal Minister of Finance can transfer the right to carry out draws by granting a license (§ 14 Para. 1 GSpG). In the online area, only Österreichische Lotterien Gesellschaft mbH – the operator of win2day – has this right. All well-known online poker offers such as Pokerstars, Partypoker, 888 Poker, Bwin, Unibet Poker are therefore illegal in Austria. The losses can be reclaimed by the game participants for 30 years.
Recently, attempts have been made to challenge the unconstitutional classification of poker as gambling. It was also claimed that the limitations on the number of gambling licenses would be incompatible with EU law.
The Constitutional Court (VfGH 03/01/2022, G365/2021) followed the previous supreme court judiciary and rejected an individual application for the repeal of specified provisions of the Gambling Act regarding “Poker” and again confirmed the conformity of the Austrian Gambling Act with European law.
Put simply, this means that Austrian participants can claim back their gambling losses (poker, roulette, blackjack, slots) from all online casinos except win2day. According to the highest courts, poker losses also fall under gambling losses.
dr Karim Weber and Mag. Jakob Leinsmer from Gottgeisl & Leinsmer Rechtsanwälte OG are conducting over 10,000 proceedings against illegal online gambling providers such as Bwin, Leo Vegas, Mr Green, Pokerstars etc. More than 2,000 proceedings have already been successfully concluded.
Questions & contact:
dr Karim Weber, Attorney at Law
Gottgeisl & Leinsmer Rechtsanwälte OG
kw@gl-recht.at
+43 (1) 600 27 71
https://www.anwalt-1100.at/
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