Austrian gambling association wants to open market
The association from Austria has called for the end of the gambling monopoly in the country after a scandal involving Casinos Austria.
Austria.- The Association for Betting and Gambling from Austria (OVWG), which represents online gambling and sports betting providers in the country, says that the gambling monopoly in Austria needs to be revised.
The call for the gambling monopoly to end comes after a scandal involving Casinos Austria, which has had a monopoly on casinos in Austria since 2016. A recent investigation claims that the appointment of the CFO of Casinos Austria, Peter Sidlo, was related to licencing awards in Vienna, despite him denying those reports.
The OVWG said that the developments of the past few days show that Austria urgently needs to rethink its gambling monopoly. “This concerns the multiple functions of the Federal Minister of Finance as the supervisory authority, licensing body and co-owner. On the other hand, it is an unjustifiable fact that there is only one national online gambling license, which also raises significant concerns about its compliance with EU law,” said the OVWG.
“State-of-the-art gambling regulation in line with market conditions must serve to create a transparent and secure gaming environment: player protection for customers, legal security for companies and comprehensive control, and guaranteed tax revenues for the state.”
The association said that the argument that only the gambling monopoly can offer protection and control can no longer be upheld. “The online sector, in particular, offers a multitude of technical possibilities that ensure comprehensive state control,” it said.
“Digitisation opens up completely new possibilities in the area of player protection and Austria should aggressively deal with modern legislation and licensing.”
Mag. Claus Retschitzegger, President of the OVWG, said: “We have received scientific studies from the University of Munich and the University of Vienna, which clearly come to the conclusion that the current monopoly is in violation of EU law. If Austria really cares about player protection, it is high time to introduce a transparent, fair and EU-compliant licensing system and an independent regulatory authority. These licenses must be tendered in a public and transparent process and must not be tailored to a specific company.”
