Austria’s government has launched public consultations on the liberalisation of the country’s online gambling market.
Days after the triparty coalition came to an agreement to target October 2027 as the launch date, the initial licensing conditions are now officially out.
According to the consultation paper, which aims to introduce the biggest gambling reforms in Austria in 26 years, any eligible operator can apply for a licence if they cover the required criteria, such as having a supervisory board, effective AML and player protection compliance, and a share capital of at least €10m.
Does Austria only want the big players?
Looking at the latter requirement suggests that Austria is trying to target some of the biggest international gambling operators. A minimum of €10m in share capital is significantly more compared to other European jurisdictions that are currently trying to attract foreign gambling investments.
The two most avid examples of that are Estonia and Finland. Estonia, which recently began the implementation of a multi-year gambling tax decrease to eventually rival the tax rate of Malta, has set the share capital requirement for online licence applicants at €1m.
Finland on the other hand, which similarly to Austria will break up its state monopoly over the next few years, has no set minimum share capital for online licensees, opting to grant operator permissions on a case-by-case basis instead.
Moving on, those wanting to offer online gambling in Austria will need to prepare €70,000 for a licence under the new draft amendment.
The current draft conditions also envision a cooling-off period, in which licence applicants must cease all previous offerings in Austria by 1 January 2027 until their licence is granted.
For anyone breaking this rule, licences will be barred for 18 months from that date.
Of note, licences will be granted only to operators with a home state where Austrian court judgements are enforceable, bringing attention once again to Malta’s controversial Bill 55 and how it protects its domestic operators from legal action filed against them in other jurisdictions.
Prior to making entry, operators should also have resolved all tax debts and outstanding player protection claims.
Player-wise, weekly deposits for 18-26-year-olds will be capped at €250. Those aged 26 and over will have monthly deposits of €1,680. An increase in deposit limits will be possible on a case-by-case basis for anyone aged 23 and above.
Online play will be limited to €5 per stake, with total win limit capped at €10,000. Tech draft provisions mandate for each spin to be two seconds long, with a cooling-off break after a 90 minutes game session.
Meanwhile, the ban on jackpot features will be lifted, and the number of land-based licences statewide will be set at 13.
The regulator will be given payment blocking powers to blacklist IBANs and issue blocking orders to payment providers. IP blocking will be done through AWS, Cloudflare and Google.
A centralised self-exclusion registry is also proposed for all types of gambling except lottery, which will fully remain under management by the state’s Win2Day operator.
Stakeholders have until 15 July 2026 to submit their feedback on the proposed framework.
