Slovakian gambling market analysis with Dr. Robert Skalina (WH Partners) and Stefan Švec (Playtech) at Prague Gaming Summit 3

Slovakia will follow new gambling rules after the parliament overrode the president’s veto and adopted the new law on gambling. A total of 86 deputies voted for the change, supported by some opposition MPs also. This will increase the protection of gamblers, adding the rules for running gambling games on the Internet.

Slovakia’s parliament has passed the new gambling act prepared by the Ministry of Finance, which will open the Slovak market for foreign operators, including operators with a registered office outside of Slovakia.

The new act became effective on March 1, 2019, except for some provisions which will be effective as of 1 June 2019 and we have seen a lot of movements in the market.

One of the most important changes is private domestic companies, as well as companies from the European Union, will be able to apply for online gambling licenses.

The law also introduces more measures to protect gamblers. The minimum number of gambling machines in one gambling house will increase to 15 machines. In addition, gambling in these houses will be banned between 3:00 and 10:00. (You can our briefing on Slovakia here.)

Partypoker announced their exit from the market last week. As of Thursday, February 28, the company has stopped accepting players from Slovakia and will implement geo-blocking to prevent the play from existing customers, reported Czech poker site Poker-Arena.

The third edition of Prague Gaming Summit will include a special panel discussion which is titled “Focus on the Slovakian market regulation and decrypting Poland’s licensing procedures” and will be joined by industry experts of the region such as Michał Sałajczyk (Associate, Bird & Bird Poland), Stefan Švec (Sales Director, Playtech), and Dr. Robert Skalina (Senior Advisor, WH Partners).

The panel will be moderated by Andrius Gabnys (Managing partner/Attorney-at-Law, Gabnys Law).

About Stefan Švec

Štefan Švec is an industry professional with over 10 years of experience in the retail and online gaming space. Focusing on Central and Eastern European countries, he has co-created several successful projects as Doxxbet and CardCasino and consulted to local market leaders as Synot or Slovmatic. Started as an operator of Poker cardroom in Slovakia and went from Online product manager, Head of products to Head of Sales, Consultant, and Managing Director. Two years ago he has joined Playtech, the world biggest supplier of gaming products and services, where he leads the sales efforts in Eastern and Central Europe included CIS. He is mostly responsible to develop new Tier1 opportunities, to establish new business prospects and investments possibilities across the region.

About Dr. Robert Skalina

Dr. Robert Skalina is a Czech Advocate as well as a Registered European Lawyer in Malta. He is based in Prague and works in Malta regularly.

He is a financial service and corporate lawyer and provides advice to a wide range of investment managers, advisors and funds, including private equity and hedge funds. Robert also regularly advises clients in the gaming/gambling industries and has vast experience in the area of mergers and acquisitions and complex cross border transactions.

Robert has previously held the position of head of legal of a London based investment advisor active throughout EMEA region. Prior to that, he served as legal counsel for the largest retail bank in the Czech Republic.

Robert graduated with an LLM cum laude from the London School of Economics. He holds a Master of Laws degree from the Charles University in Prague. He provides advice in English, Czech and Slovak.

Do not miss this opportunity to attend the leading conference in the region which offers the option for both new companies and veterans, to learn about industry insights and compliance updates, while also take part in several industry related discussions with the leading groups that are at the forefront of the gambling industry in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Austria, Switzerland, and Germany.

You can Register here or View the Agenda