Update on Slovak gambling regulation

Based on the recent amendments to the Act No. 171/2005 Coll., on gambling games (“Gambling Act”) effective as of 1 January 2017, any B2C operator operating on the territory of Slovakia who does not hold a Slovak gambling license is considered to operate illegally and its name, website and bank account details among others will be placed on the list of forbidden websites (“Black List”). The Black List is created and maintained by the Slovak Financial Directorate (“Financial Directorate”).

The Financial Directorate shall publish the Black List on its website every Monday. The first List was published on 17th July 2017. It included 10 websites, some of which are operated by major international operators. Further information can be found here.

The Financial Directorate can request Slovak court to issue an order (“Court Order”) to one or more internet service providers to block access to the websites included in the Black List and an order to one or more payment service providers to block payment transfers to the bank account included in the Black List.

The Gambling Act states that that there is no remedy/appeal available against the Court Order.

In addition to being put on the Black List and their websites and bank accounts being blocked, the operators can also be subject to a fine in the region of EUR15.000-500.000.

For further information on the Slovak market please contact our Senior Advisor, Robert Skalina at [email protected]

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