The issue has been of concern to Austria since the events surrounding the infamous casino affair. The alleged swap of jobs for the promised change to the Austrian Gambling Act concerned the public, media and courts for years.
The gambling landscape in the country has now fundamentally changed. The former state-dominated group Casinos Austria became a private company, whose fortunes have been determined by the Czech Sazka Group since it took over the majority.
All licenses in the hands of Casinos Austria
This was made possible by an Austrian competitor, the vending machine manufacturer and operator Novomatic. In the course of the public discussions, he withdrew from the takeover battle and sold his shares to the new owner from the Czech Republic.
However, the strict legal regulations have not changed so far. Austria’s gambling landscape is defined by the Gambling Act. This provides for the tendering and awarding of licenses by the Federal Ministry of Finance. A total of twelve licenses are planned for stationary casinos, plus another license for an online casino. These licenses are currently all in the hands of Casinos Austria, but they will begin to expire in 2027.
Dispute over legality
A reorganization of the existing casino landscape could then be imminent. But until that happens, the topic will remain hotly debated. This also applies to the online area, which is currently continuing to do good business in Austria. Officially, only the Casinos Austria subsidiary Win2day is allowed to operate an online casino, but in fact there are of course countless providers on the market in Austria. This creates the absurd situation that they pay taxes to the Austrian state and are still viewed as illegal.
They are of the opinion that their business activities are covered by the EU Services Directive. For years now, states’ efforts to protect their monopolies and ensure adequate player protection have clashed with the interests of an entire industry.
Germany has liberalized its market
Many countries have chosen to liberalize their markets as a way out of the apparent impasse. This applies, for example, to Germany, where the New German State Treaty on Gambling comes into force is. On the one hand, this strengthens player protection and, on the other hand, opens the German market to foreign companies.
Switzerland is taking the opposite approach, using technical tools to seal off its market from online casinos from abroad. Accessing these is easy. Who on the Internet best online casinos in Austria If you’re looking for anything, you’ll quickly find what you’re looking for – after all, the competition is enormous. The providers compete for new customers with various bonuses and thus extract a considerable share of sales from Austria.
The Supreme Court declared all contracts invalid
But recently the industry encountered bitter resistance. This has to do with those litigation financiers who are increasingly taking action against providers from abroad. Numerous lawsuits in Austrian courts have recently been successful. Some players had sued for their losses at foreign online casinos. The legal dispute went all the way to the Supreme Court, which made a ruling.
Accordingly, contracts between Austrian players and online casinos without an Austrian license are invalid and losses must therefore be reimbursed. But then something happened that very few people had expected. Individual foreign operators turned the tables and sued for the winnings of players from Austria. The Supreme Court upheld this action on the grounds that no business relationship was possible with invalid contracts. Winnings and losses must be paid back.
The new federal government is called upon
This situation, which is unsatisfactory for all sides, can only be resolved if there is a comprehensive reform of Austrian gaming law. This had already been announced by the federal government, which was still in office, but did not materialize. After all, this is also about separating the tendering and awarding of licenses from the Federal Ministry of Finance in order to prevent political influence in the future.
However, this new order was no longer achieved in the current legislative period, so it will be up to the new federal government to ensure that gambling law in Austria is reorganized. But given the deadlines and the duration of the procurement process, this could be a short time.
After all, the Federal Ministry of Finance itself expects it to take 45 months and therefore, according to its own information, began preparatory work for the tender in February of this year. The reason for the long duration also lies in the objection deadlines based on Austrian procurement law.
The last call for tenders led to a long dispute over the procedure, and observers expect that to happen this time too. Finally, numerous providers from abroad are looking at licenses from Austria and hope that this time there will be a wide distribution.
Salzburg is the Austrian hotspot for illegal gambling
Meanwhile, illegal gambling continues to thrive. It was only in the summer that the Austrian financial police announced that they would do so in the first few months more penalties than ever before had previously imposed on illegal providers. A year earlier there were only half as many.
A few large cases in the state of Salzburg may have been responsible for the increase. Experts attribute this to the fact that in the surrounding federal states the setting up of slot machines is permitted according to the respective federal state rules, but not in Salzburg. In view of the enormous increase in illegal gambling, the Salzburg state government is now also planning liberalization. This could not only bring these excesses under control, but also bring the country more tax revenue.
