Czech Rep set to overhaul gambling laws

The Czech Republic is gearing up for an overhaul of its current gambling laws, in order to allow the government mandate to prepare for the regulation and legislation of online gambling.

At present the Czech Republic has five licensed operators who supply fixed odds betting terminals – Sazka, Synot, Chance, Fortuna and Tipsport.  The proposed amendments will allow the licensed operators to operate online gaming verticals, furthermore parliament approved the opening up of the market for foreign competition by established European igaming operators.

The reform to the countries gambling laws are currently being undertaken by Czech  finance minister – Andrej Babiš who has been tasked with adding online gambling provisions to the Czech Republic’s Lotteries Act.

The Ministry of Finance is responsible for the country’s gambling regulation, and in a recent interview with Bloomberg, deputy finance minister Ondrej Zavodsky said the provision of online gambling would help balance the books in relation to money spent on problem gambling.

“We need to create an environment that will allow us to tackle hard core gaming like slots or table games,” Zavodsky said. “The indirect costs for the state stemming from such gambling are several times higher than the revenue it collects – that should be made even.”