New gambling law in Austria

The Austrian gaming industry will face legal new regulation from 2023. According to matching media reports, the Ministry of Finance is said to have already drawn up a comprehensive draft law to eliminate the susceptibility of the current legal framework. In the recent past, conflicts of interest have always occurred between the gaming industry and politics. At the same time, the new legislation provides, among other things, to resolve the licensing procedure, to install a central register and to cut the advertising activities of the industry players heavily.

Judge Senate awards concessions

One of the biggest changes is to make the draft law in the area of state concessions. The current legal framework stipulates that the national happiness of happiness in the area of responsibility of the Ministry of Finance (BMF) fall. The task of the government organ is to award official concessions to gaming operators who meet all the given requirements and criteria. A circumstance that could be overturned by the change of gambling law. In the future the Allocation of the licenses are responsible for the so -called judge senatethat would consist of a total of three judges. These will be “constitutional and free of directive”, according to politics.

To ensure that would The judges only perform their work in the new Senate part -time – Temporary for six years. In addition, the new legislation will not provide the judge’s senate its own infrastructure. All powers of action should be carried out by the new supervisory authority, which as a superordinate control body should monitor the fortunes within the gambling industry.

Politics & Gambling The amendments to the license allocation should dissolve the much -cited closeness between political officials and the Austrian gaming industry. In the recent past, information has repeatedly opened to the public, the immoral and sometimes illegal connections between politics and gambling industry. Together with the new supervisory authority, the judge’s senate is to lay this complex relationship network.

Gambling authority as a supervisory organ

In the meantime, numerous European countries have installed a higher -level gaming authority in order to be able to protect the growing industry. After a central gambling authority in USA in USA in the new Gambling State Treaty (GlüStV) has now also placed on a higher -level control body. This will be consist of a total of ten employees for the initial phase and led by two board members according to the current provisions of the ruling coalition.

Complete independence The Austrian Ministry of Finance seems to be aware of the potential power vacuum of the new gaming authority and is said to have equipped the draft law with some measures in order to prevent impending conflicts of interest, influence or even bribes. For example, strict “compliance and incompatibility rules” are part of the new legal framework. These provide for the relevant employees to do no other activity for one year before and after their commitment in the authority. This would ensure a self -sufficient appearance both externally and internally.

The authority is primarily intended to devote itself to the operational gambling and increasingly pay attention to the protection of the players. In practice, the following areas of responsibility would be on the slip: measures against entrepreneurial money laundering, control of the rules of the market, fight against illegal online gambling and addiction prevention. The latter should can be driven decisively by installing a blocking network. In the future, casinos, casinos and platforms on the Internet would be encouraged to integrate this blocking network into their own business processes. All players who show a striking game behavior are to be registered here.

Disputes about advertising activities

In addition to the blocking network, the presence of the gambling industry in public space is to be severely restricted. The new legal framework specifically goes into the advertising and marketing activities of the individual industry players. The Ministerial Council already announced this restrictive measure. Specifically, this is about one more sensitive handling in the external display, for example, so as not to lead to gambling at risk of addiction or minors.

However, the cuts in the advertising activities of the individual gaming providers are a big issue, since both politics and industry actors fear disadvantageous development. Separate Official devices see the restriction of a flexation of the illegal online gambling game, because many players would migrate to the black market due to a lack of knowledge about the state -headed concession. On the other hand, the individual gaming companies advocate their economic interests, which are endangered without an extensive advertising permit.

Fight against illegal gambling The international gambling is becoming more and more digital, which more and more black sheep in the industry calls on the scene and inspires the illegal offer. A development that does not go without a trace of Austria. However, according to the local media, the Alpine state wants to protect its own player with the DNS blocking. In this regard, the new supervisory authority will create a black list with companies that are not allowed to operate on their own market. At the same time, players should be redirected to “stop pages” if they want to play on illegal online platforms.