Coalition Agrees on New Gambling Law – Draft Goes into Review Today
Vienna (OTS) – The governing parties ÖVP, SPÖ, and NEOS have agreed on a comprehensive reform of the gambling law. The draft goes into review today, Monday. The two central issues are: more player protection and a fundamental restructuring of online licenses. The negotiation leaders for their parties were Andreas Ottenschläger for ÖVP, Jan Krainer for SPÖ, and Christoph Pramhofer for NEOS. They describe this as the largest reform of the gambling law in 26 years. The law will bring player protection and the rules for the gambling market up to date. ****Andreas Ottenschläger, ÖVP Financial Speaker: “With the restructuring of the gambling law, we are taking a step towards more competition, legal certainty, and fair market conditions. The opening of the online market ends outdated monopoly structures, creates new investment incentives, and strengthens Austria’s economic location. At the same time, we enhance player protection through clear and contemporary protection mechanisms and take a firm stance against illegal providers. This allows legal companies to operate, invest, and create value in Austria under fair conditions. We have succeeded in finding the right balance between effective player protection and a legally secure, functioning market.”Jan Krainer, SPÖ Financial Speaker: “The reform of the gambling law was long overdue. We’ve managed to unify many conflicting interests. The key points are: we are improving player protection and bringing order to the online market, which has become increasingly murky and dark in recent years.”Christoph Pramhofer, NEOS Speaker for Health and Capital Markets: “A gambling offering that takes place in the legal and regulated realm is the best player protection. That’s exactly why we are opening the online market – in a controlled manner and with uniform rules for all providers. The previous state monopoly has led to players often turning to the gray or black market due to a lack of alternatives. With the liberalization, we are now creating a modern market with healthy competition and high, enforceable player protection standards. The implementation of this long-standing demand is also crucial for me as a health spokesperson.”Here’s an overview of the review draft:
- General Information
- Regulation of online gambling
- Modernization of player protection – Focus: player-related measures
- An open concession system for online gambling will be introduced.
- In principle, any provider who meets the strict requirements (e.g., corporation with supervisory board, functioning compliance systems for money laundering/player protection, minimum capital of €10 million) can obtain an online concession.
- The law stipulates that applicants for an online concession must cease any ongoing illegal online offerings from January 1, 2027 until the concession is awarded. This cooling-off phase aims to ensure a regulated transition to the open concession system from the enactment of the amendment until the expiration of the current super concession. Any provider who adheres to this cooling-off phase can obtain an online concession following the regular expiration of the super concession (September 30, 2027).
- For all providers who continue to operate illegal online gambling after January 1, 2027, there will be an 18-month waiting period for obtaining the concession. Starting January 1, 2030, the waiting period will extend to 24 months. This measure aims to ensure that compliant actors do not face disadvantages in the future, thus securing legal online markets.
- Additionally, any concession applicant must settle all non-expired tax debts and unpaid player protection claims. This criteria applies not just to the specific applicant (the individual company) but also requires clearing all outstanding dues/player protection claims in the group.
- To prevent circumvention of this requirement, the law states that all dues/player protection claims connected to a brand must be settled. Thus, an outsourcing of the brand to another group is not possible because even the usage of a “tainted” brand is not permissible under the legal requirements.
- This regulation ensures fairness. Over 20,000 affected players should benefit from this regulation as their outstanding claims are to be settled.
- Moreover, only those applicants will receive a concession if it’s ensured that decisions from Austrian courts can be enforced in their place of residence.
- To secure the legal market, the law foresees two blocking provisions:
- Payment Blocking:
- Payment blocking will prevent monetary flows to and from illegal payment providers. This goal will be achieved through a legally mandated double strategy. Both national and international payments will be covered by payment blocking.
- Black List: All banks/payment service providers operating in Austria are required to block the IBANs of illegal gambling providers published by the finance ministry. Thus, both national and international payments related to illegal providers in Austria are blocked.
- Payment-Blocking Order Procedure: In the future, mainly international payment providers (e.g., Visa, Paypal, etc.) will be mandated to cease business relationships with illegal gambling providers. The main objective here is to reduce payment options on the websites of illegal providers as much as possible.
- Network Blocking:
- The network blocking procedures aim to ensure that websites of illegal providers are not accessible in Austria. This goal will be primarily achieved by mandating large international cloud providers (Cloudflare, AmazonWebService) and search engines (Google) to block the websites of illegal providers in Austria.
- Payment Blocking:
- In addition to the regulation of online gambling, the reform places a strong emphasis on advancing and raising player protection standards based on scientific findings. The focus of the legal innovations is on player-related measures. With targeted enhancements to the existing player protection system, a stable and attractive gambling offering will be created, with the consumer at the center.
- A central, operator- and game type-independent blocking register will be introduced, designed to be technology open and tamper-proof. Therefore, both operator-related and self-exclusions will be recorded centrally in the future. This measure will effectively protect particularly at-risk players (in Germany, roughly 90 percent of self-exclusions are initiated by players). The blocking register will cover all game types (Casino, Slots, Online) except Lotto.
- As another measure, effective deposit limits for online gambling and land-based slots will be established. By legally restricting the maximum deposit amounts (18-26 years: EUR 250/week, above 26 years EUR 1,680/month) a further protection measure will be implemented, offering particular protection for young adults.
- In the online sector, an Online Gambling Oversight System will be implemented, centrally monitoring compliance with legally regulated deposit limits using an inter-provider limit register. In individual cases (for adults over the age of 23), the deposit limit can be increased if players demonstrate sufficient creditworthiness. However, increasing the deposit limit requires closely monitoring players to ensure continued effective player protection. The oversight system will be implemented with a regulation from the HBMF.
- In addition to the legally mandated restrictions, the strengthening of personal responsibility will also be promoted. Through the mandatory setting of time and monetary limits for land-based slots and online gambling set by the players themselves, players will be provided with a legally secured means of self-limiting. The increase of self-imposed limits will be subject to a 72-hour waiting period to curb impulsive behavior and strengthen self-control.
- To better assess the specific risks of gambling, a legal requirement to present gambling addiction potential analyses will be introduced.
- Furthermore, the legally mandated responsible standards for gambling advertising will be specified according to scientific standards through regulations, so that advertising restrictions can be further developed purposefully and regulatory responses to new phenomena can be quick.
- Regarding offerings with slot machines, which have the highest prevalence of addiction, existing restrictions will be tightened. The speed of play at slot machines and online slots will be doubled to two seconds per spin. With this speed limit, the prevalence of addiction in affected offerings is aimed to be reduced. A mandatory cooling-off phase after 90 minutes of gaming duration will also be introduced, during which players will be specifically informed about the risks of gambling through videos.
- The bet limit for slot machines (including online slots) will be halved to EUR 5. The previously successful winning limit of EUR 10,000 will remain in place. Additionally, the existing jackpot ban will be abolished to ensure an attractive legal gambling offering and counter the migration to the black market.
- The new regulation aims to ensure a clearly structured, monitored offering that meets the highest standards for player protection and responsible gambling. In the future, limits on virtual slot machines (slots in online gambling) will also be introduced. The restrictions on maximum bets and winnings, as well as the limitation of playing speed and the obligation of a cooling-off phase for players, will thus be extended to the online area as well. Therefore, high player protection standards will also be guaranteed for online gambling, similar to terrestrial slot gambling.
- The number of casinos will be set to 13 concessions, allowing for a reasoned subdivision of concessions into packages. In this case, criteria such as comprehensive coverage of the Austrian population, the tourist potential of a region, socio-demographic and socio-economic conditions, and the identification of catchment areas must be considered. When structuring packages, the minimization of competition pressure between casinos to enhance player protection and a balanced relationship of value must be ensured alongside an adequate forecast of economic viability.