#PragueGamingSummit3 – Speaker Profiles – Jan Řehola (Director at IFGR and Partner at PS Legal)

As mentioned last week, Prague Gaming Summit will host a special panel discussion which will highlight the activity of the Czech market since its regulation.

It seems that the industry is developing quickly in Czechia and such is the example of the newly created Institute for Gambling Regulation (IFGR) which was founded recently and was endorsed by The Deputy Finance Minister, responsible for gambling regulation.

In the Czech Republic, the first communication platform of its kind – the Institute for Gambling Regulation (IFGR) was founded at the end of last year.

Jan Řehola, the Director of the IFGR and former director of the Gambling Regulation Division in Czechia will join the “Gambling in Czechia – Note on the 3 years of activity” panel discussion at Prague Gaming Summit, which will be held on the 12^th of March.

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

About Jan Řehola

Jan Řehola has over eight years of experience in the gambling field, both from the public and private sector.

He holds a Master’s of Law from Charles University in Prague.  Jan worked for four years for the Ministry of Finance – the Czech gambling regulator; firstly, as a Head of the Legal Unit and later, as a Director of Gambling Department.  In his work for the Czech gambling regulator, Jan was responsible for all gambling policy issues, including the drafting of new legislation, the issuing of gambling licences and cooperation with other European regulators as a member of the European Commission Expert Group on Online Gambling.

After leaving the Ministry of Finance in 2014, Jan became a member of Petroš Sedláčková Legal and co-founder of the consultancy company BetOnSkill Consulting, a full-service international gaming consultancy.

Jan is also a member of the Chamber of Commerce of the Czech Republic and its special section “Czech Chamber of Lottery Industries”.

More about the Institute for Gambling Regulation (IFGR)

The platform brings together the majority of legal gambling operators in the Czech Republic, testing laboratories and game systems and games manufacturers. It currently has 31 members, including 4 partner associations, through which other operators are members. The most important Czech operators and manufacturers such as Tipsport, Fortuna, E-gamming, Kajot, Apollo, as well as foreign manufacturers and testing laboratories such as Microgaming, GLI, and BMM are among its members today.

The primary objective of the IFGR is to participate in the conceptual development of gambling operation in the Czech Republic and to become a respected partner of a regulator and other public authorities that are active in the field of gambling for expert discussion during the creation of regulation. The Deputy Finance Minister, responsible for gambling regulation, took part in the IFGR’s founding meeting and endorsed this idea.

The main means of achieving this goal will be not only a participation in planned regular meetings with a regulator’s representatives, but also the IFGR’s participation during the development of gambling legislation, interpretative statement, methodologies, standards, and preparation of analyses and studies on the assessment of impacts of gambling regulation.

IFGR has been given the status of a comment place of relevant ministries and authorities in the process of drafting new legislation in this field.

Any gambling operation license holder in the Czech Republic, a testing laboratory with authorization for expert assessment from the Ministry of Finance and game systems and games manufacturer can become a member.

The platform is divided into five sections according to its focus, namely Lotteries, Fixed-odds Betting, Technical and Live Game, Authorized Persons, and Game Systems Manufacturers.

The sections are headed by their managers, most of whom are former officials of a Czech regulator. The Director of the IFGR is Jan Řehola, former director of the Gambling Regulation Division, the managers of the sections are Václav Ulrich, former deputy head of the Licensing Procedure, and Petra Razím Ďurovičová, former head of the Administrative Procedure Department.

IFGR has an established website (www.iprh.cz). The advantage of membership is, among other things, the private part of the website, where members can find materials on the issues currently addressed, the Newsletter, summarizing information on the statements published by the Ministry of Finance and by the Customs Administration, FAQs, minutes of meetings and other material.

Members can also use the current very popular method of training, that is webinars, on topics currently addressed.

IFGR organizes quarterly meetings of the individual sections to discuss current gambling issues. In addition, they plan to organize an expert conference in June this year, where representatives of public authorities and experts in the field of gambling will speak.

Make sure to Register here or View the Agenda and get the chance to meet Jan in person at the conference