Austria’s Leaked Draft that Details End of the Gambling Monopoly

Austria has been mulling whether or not to deconstruct the state held gambling monopoly for the best part of a year now, and this week a leaked draft may finally have cracked the big question. The Ministry of Finance revealed that it is now finally on track to reform Austria’s gambling laws and end the monopoly held by the Austrian Lotteries’ Win2Day brand. As it stands, Win2Day’s online gambling license is set to run its course in 2027, and in preparation for this, there has been dialogue about extending this licence or dismantling the nearly 60-year monopoly.

The good news for players is that the end is nigh, and with it, there is hope that a fresh injection of energy will be pumped into the Austrian iGaming market. The Ministry of Finance sees it as a win because it will help push on-shore channelization and bring players back from the black market. And there is also an idea that creating a licensing framework, with taxes and compliance costs, will bring greater revenue for the state. We don’t have to speculate about how the Austrian iGaming sector will look either, as the draft puts out some highly specific laws to give players an idea of what is to come.

Austria’s Draft iGaming Bill

First and foremost, a little background information. Austria’s current gambling regime is a monopoly, run by Casinos Austria that operates the landbased Austrian casinos as well as the lottery and the country’s official online casino. The Austrian Ministry of Finance is going to deconstruct the monopoly, ending one of the last state-run monopoly setups in Europe. There were rumours that the monopoly may stay, and a previously leaked draft last year seemed to indicate this. But this new draft has done a 180, implying the monopoly’s end is nigh. With Finland ending its monopoly from July, it only leaves Norway as the last, true, state run gambling monopoly in Europe.

While this is a positive sign for players, the proposed Austrian iGaming bill has some pretty strict conditions for operators and players alike. Lotteries will not be touched, these will remain the reserve of Casinos Austria brands, but online casino operators are welcome to come to Austria, so long as they can meet the compliance standards and pay the not-so-little costs to enter the market.

How Operators Can Enter Austria

Austria is looking to open up without setting a cap on the number of iGaming licenses up for grabs, which could prompt an aggressive onslaught of interest. This means that operators will not have to compete for valuable spaces, taking off the pressure to run in all at once and also reduce any possibility of a handful of firms gaining a head start. The draft proposes licenses for an initial period of 5 years, with an option to extend them up to 10 years. And only companies that are either headquartered in Austria, Europe or the EEA can apply for a license. That includes any operators in classically offshore jurisdictions like Gibraltar or Malta.

Any operators who were serving Austrian players through the gray market, or without regulation up until that point, will have to prove that they meet the iGaming standards. That means, backpaying any player settlement claims and related taxes. Paying back any player claims and back taxes can amount to huge sums of money for some operators, and to make matters more costly, the draft implies applicants will need to have €10 million in capital to be eligible to apply for the Austrian license.

As a final word of warning to any interested gambling operators out there, the Austrian tax on iGaming is projected to be up to 45% GGR, which is among the highest rates in Europe.

Setting High Player Protection Protocols

Onto the player protocols, these follow many of the same rules that Austria has had in the landbased gambling sector. Austria wants to set up a centrally run self-exclusion register, which regulated operators will be obliged to use. And, it will follow up the safety protocols with deposit limits, maximum staking caps, restricted slot game features, and a ban on all jackpot games. In full, players are looking at:

• Deposit limits: Set at €1,680 per week for 26 year olds and above. Set at just €250 per week for players under 26
• Maximum stakes: Slots spin stakes capped at €2 and maximum win capped at €2,000
• Jackpots: No jackpot games are allowed
• Slots features: Speed of each spin will have minimum time thresholds
• Gaming session limits: Mandatory 15 minute cool off periods must be integrated after 90 minutes of continuous play

These are pretty similar to the German iGaming laws, where slot spins have a €1 cap, autoplay is banned, slot rounds must last a minimum 5 seconds, and jackpot games are strictly forbidden. Austria’s laws are a little more lenient, but they also introduce a “younger gambler” demographic, much like the Netherlands’ iGaming regulations. Instead of setting out the same rules for all eligible customers, Austrians aged 18 to 26 have tighter limits (in the Netherlands, this applies to players aged 18 to 24).

Austria’s Struggles Against the Black Market

Winning players back from the black market is the primary goal right now for Austria, as the unregulated operators hold a significant share of the overall market. A study at the beginning of this year estimated that 71% of the market share was held by unregulated operators, making anywhere between €435 million and €616 million. The Austrian monopoly only channels around 29% up to 37% of the market, which would indicate a system that is desperately failing. The Ministry of Finance, which is the authority on these matters, did not release any official findings on the subject, but the issue is undoubtedly big.

So it makes sense to open the market, but this has to be done carefully too. Just looking at those sets of player rules, and the deposit limits, tiered age rules, maximum stakes and jackpots are all pretty similar to the markets in Germany and the Netherlands. The German iGaming sector is in a similar type of predicament, despite having opened the gambling market back in 2021 with the Interstate Treaty on Gambling. On the other hand, the Dutch iGaming market attracted many top brands when it launched back in 2023, but a recent study has shown that the black market has overtaken the regulated one.

Breaking the monopoly should build enough momentum to boost onshore channelization, but that momentum must be sustained with laws that are favorable to both players and operators. Otherwise, it may not have the desired effect.

Dangers of a Strictly Regulated Market

Austria wants to end the monopoly, build strong revenue channels, and create a system that is fair for players so they will use regulated platforms again. They would do better to structure the licensing framework closer to the Italian model, which is undergoing major reforms right now. Instead of the Dutch or German ones. For Italy was historically more relaxed about the regulated sports betting and online casino sector, but last year it introduced completely new reforms.

They introduced a solitary brand per license system instead of a multi-licensing model, eliminating hundreds of sister sites and skin sites, and increased the running costs for operators. The result? A more competitive Italian market with stricter enforcement but without overly intrusive impacts on the player experience. Austria’s strict rules may risk alienating players, and given the already high engagement levels on black market operators, it will be difficult to swing players back from these platforms. For if they already got a taste for high stakes gaming and jackpots, they may not necessarily want to return to the regulated market where these are restricted.

Potential Timeline for Market Launch

The Win2Day monopoly license officially remains valid until September of 2027, which is the most likely starting point for the open licensing era in Austria’s iGaming market. However, remember that this is just a draft bill, and not yet law. There is still room for the government to tweak and adapt the conditions of the iGaming Act for Austria, potentially creating an independent regulator, more technical standards, and an official breakdown of the license types and application procedures.

After that, they can consider rolling out a pre-application period, where interested operators can submit their bids. This is really the point where the hype can build for players, especially when operators have been confirmed, as they may even offer preregistration options for players. We have seen this in Alberta, where the first major operators began offering exclusive bonuses for pre-registering players.

Now, Austria has finally decided to end its gambling monopoly, joining the majority of other EU countries in creating an open market. The details of this new iGaming market, for the time being, look strict and pretty restrictive. However, there is time yet for things to change, and the anticipation around the new market is building.