Republic of Austria
Austria is the most contested monopoly in Western Europe. Under the Gluecksspielgesetz, games of chance are reserved to the federal state and exercised through concessions administered by the Federal Ministry of Finance. Online casino games are classed as electronic lotteries and therefore sit inside the single lottery concession held by Oesterreichische Lotterien GmbH, trading as win2day, whose term runs to 30 September 2027. Sports betting is the exception: it is not a game of chance under federal law and is licensed separately by each of the nine federal states. The monopoly has drawn sustained EU-law challenge and player claw-back litigation, and the Ministry has now published a draft reform that would open online gambling to an unrestricted number of licences from 1 October 2027 while keeping the classic lottery business with a single concessionaire. If the draft reform is adopted on its current timetable, Austria would move from the most contested monopoly in Western Europe to an uncapped licensing regime within a single concession cycle. That would also resolve, prospectively at least, the player claw-back litigation that has followed the monopoly for years.
Gambling Act (Law on Games of Chance)
Gluecksspielgesetz (GSpG)
Draft reform of the Gluecksspielgesetz (market opening for online gambling)
Lottery concession, including electronic lotteries
Land-based casino concession
State bookmaker or totalisator licence
This is the European regulatory story to watch in the next 12 months. The draft has been notified to the European Commission, and the substance is a genuine market opening: an unrestricted number of online licences on a rolling basis, five years initially and ten on renewal. Two things will decide whether it lands. First, the eligibility conditions, which include settling outstanding gambling taxes, satisfying final player judgments and ceasing illegal supply during a cooling-off period. Second, the supervisory gap, because an independent gambling authority is expected to arrive well after the first licences, leaving the Ministry of Finance as both tax collector and regulator in the interim.
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Austrian Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF)
Bundesministerium fuer Finanzen
The Legal 500
ICLG (International Comparative Legal Guides)
ICLG reports the current online concession expiring on 30 September 2027 with a tender expected in early 2026; Freshfields reports the draft reform allowing new licences only from 1 October 2027 with the incumbent concession extended in the interim. The record states the 30 September 2027 term (corroborated by Legal 500) and describes the reform as a draft.
Bundesministerium fuer Finanzen (translated)