OVWG Calls for End of Gambling Monopoly in Austria

The Association for Betting and Gambling from Austria (OVWG) has called for an end to the monopoly of casinos in the country.

The call for the gambling monopoly to end comes after a scandal involving Casinos Austria, which has the monopoly on casinos in Austria since 2016. A recent investigation claims that the appointment of the CFO of Casinos Austria, Peter Sidlo, was related to licence awards in Vienna, despite him denying those reports.

“This concerns the multiple function of the Federal Minister of Finance as the supervisory authority, licensing body and co-owner. On the other hand, it is an unjustifiable fact that there is only one national online gambling license, which also raises significant concerns about its compliance with EU law. State-of-the-art gambling regulation in line with market conditions must serve to create a transparent and secure gaming environment: player protection for customers, legal security for companies and comprehensive control, and guaranteed tax revenues for the state,” OVWG said.

“The online sector in particular offers a multitude of technical possibilities that ensure comprehensive state control. Digitisation opens up completely new possibilities in the area of player protection and Austria should aggressively deal with modern legislation and licensing,” OVWG added.

“We have received scientific studies from the University of Munich and the University of Vienna, which clearly come to the conclusion that the current monopoly is in violation of EU law. If Austria really cares about player protection, it is high time to introduce a transparent, fair and EU-compliant licensing system and an independent regulatory authority. These licenses must be tendered in a public and transparent process and must not be tailored to a specific company,” Claus Retschitzegger, President of OVWG, said.