Prague district eliminates gambling
Prague 7 has complied with the decision of not offering gambling options in the district as the last gambling site was closed.
Czech Republic.- Prague 7 has closed its last gambling site, thus complying the zero-tolerance policy against gambling that was enforced in 2015 by a City of Prague decree. While the process took longer than expected, Prague 7 is now completely without gambling.
Jan Čižinský, Mayor of Prague 7, said that the elimination of gambling in the district is great news. “In 2015, we set a zero-tolerance against gambling and gaming machines through a decree of the City of Prague 7,” he said, as Prague Morning reported.
“Since [2015, we have been pushing the Treasury to speed up the lengthy process of licensing. It took longer than [expected], but in the end it [happened]. Prague 7 is now completely without gambling and gaming machines,” the Mayor said. “We are pleased that Prague 7 is no longer contributing to becoming a pathological player and destroying life,” he added.
Back in 2014, Prague 7 held a local referendum in which 92% of the voters decided to favour the zero-tolerance policy.
Prague 7 Councilor Ondřej Mirovský explained that the citizens’ decision was clear to them. “At the beginning of the last parliamentary term, 26 gambling venues were allowed in Prague 7, and we did everything we could to cancel them all,” he said.
Czech Republic’s market suffered a setback in 2018
Last year, revenue from gambling suffered a 21.3% decline to €1.2 billion in the country. Despite the important setback in revenues, players wagered €9.7 billion last year, representing an 11.3% hike when compared to the previous year, and won €8.5 billion. The entity that released the figures revealed that slots suffered the biggest setback in 2018, totalling €577,9 million and a 39.3% fall in revenues.
Land-based slots registered a 42.4% fall to €503.7 million in 2018. Moreover, online slots also registered a revenue decline of 4.8% to €74.1 million.
It is believed that these numbers were driven by the introduction of new regulations, which came into effect in August 2017. The country introduced more regulations in March 2018, largely affecting the overall performance of the industry throughout the whole year.
On the other hand, table games increased revenues by 8% to €89.8 million, mainly from land-based casinos. The online segment totalled €6.8 million, which is more than a 150% increase from 2017.
