Austria is set to open its online gambling market to private operators for the first time, after the country’s three-party coalition agreed the biggest overhaul of its gambling laws in 26 years. The reform ends the long-standing online monopoly held by Casinos Austria and its win2day brand and introduces an open licensing system from 2027.
What happened
The coalition government — formed by the ÖVP, SPÖ and NEOS — said the package brings player protection and market rules up to date. Licences will, in principle, be open to any operator that meets strict conditions, including working anti-money-laundering and player-protection systems and minimum share capital of €10 million.
Operators currently running illegal online services must shut them down from 1 January 2027 during a cooling-off period, with the first licences awarded from 30 September 2027. Those who keep operating illegally face an 18-month wait before they can be licensed, rising to 24 months from 2030.
To protect the regulated market, Austria plans payment-blocking measures that would require banks and payment firms — and eventually international providers such as Visa and PayPal — to block transfers to unlicensed operators. The government is also exploring network-level blocking with major infrastructure providers such as Cloudflare and AWS, plus search engines, to make illegal sites harder to reach.
Tighter player protection
Alongside opening the market, the reform strengthens responsible-gambling rules. A central, independent exclusion register will record both self-exclusion and operator-imposed bans across all game types except lotteries. New deposit limits will cap online play at €250 per week for players aged 18 to 26 and €1,680 per month for those over 26, monitored through a cross-operator limit register. Players aged 23 and over may apply to raise their limit, subject to a creditworthiness check and closer monitoring.
Slots face the tightest controls: spin speed will be halved to two seconds, the maximum stake cut to €5, and a mandatory cooling-off break with risk-awareness videos will trigger after 90 minutes of play. A long-standing ban on jackpots will be lifted to keep the legal market competitive against the black market.
Why it matters
Austria becomes the latest European market to swap a state monopoly for open, regulated competition — a model regulators worldwide increasingly favour to pull players away from unlicensed grey-market sites. For operators, a €10 million capital bar and strict compliance rules signal a serious, well-policed market. The draft law opened for public consultation on 29 June 2026, with licensing expected to begin in late 2027.
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