Hungary Strips Its Gambling Regulator of Concession Powers, With 30 Days to Hand Over the Files

A law in force since 1 October ends the Supervisory Authority for Regulated Activities' veto over concession contracts, including casino concessions, and abolishes the Concession Council it dominated. The regulator must pass its concession files to the finance minister by the end of the month, as the government weighs whether to close it altogether.

• Act LIX of 2026, adopted on 22 September and in force since 1 October, removes the Supervisory Authority for Regulated Activities (SZTFH) from the award and management of state concessions
• The SZTFH's prior consent is no longer needed to launch a concession tender or to sign, amend or terminate a concession contract, including in procedures already under way, and the Concession Council, chaired by the SZTFH's president, is abolished
• The SZTFH's president has 30 days to hand every concession file to the finance minister, and the government will designate by decree who awards concessions in future
• The law follows a government resolution of 31 August that gave Justice Minister Márta Görög until 30 September to report on whether the SZTFH can be abolished; no report had been published by 5 October
• The SZTFH keeps its gambling licensing, supervision and blocking powers for now, and has said that it never decided who received a concession

Parliament Takes the Concession Veto Away From the SZTFH

Hungary's National Assembly passed Act LIX of 2026, amending certain laws relating to concessions, at its sitting on 22 September, according to the footnote to the act in the official gazette. Hungarian legal and government news outlets reported the result as 135 votes in favour, 46 against and six abstentions, enough for the act's cardinal provisions, which need a two-thirds majority. It appeared in issue 142 of the Magyar Közlöny on 30 September and entered into force the following day.

The act amends the 1991 Concessions Act and the 2021 law that created the SZTFH. Its preamble says the aim is to rationalise the handling of concessions by removing the SZTFH's concession tasks and powers, and to abolish the Concession Council, made up mostly of members delegated by the authority. From 1 October the SZTFH's prior consent is no longer required to issue a concession tender or invitation to bid, or to conclude, amend or terminate a concession contract on behalf of the state, including in procedures already pending. The government is empowered to name, by decree, the minister or central government body that will run those procedures and sign the contracts. The act also ends the SZTFH's checks on tobacco retail concession contracts.

Thirty Days to Hand Over the Files

The most immediate obligation falls on the SZTFH's president, who must transfer, within 30 days, every document generated in connection with concession tenders, the conclusion, amendment and termination of concession contracts, the inspection of concession activities and the enforcement of contractual rights, to the minister responsible for state assets. The government's explanatory memorandum, published on 1 October, identifies that minister as the finance minister. On a plain count, the handover is due by the end of October.

The memorandum says that, beyond its consent right, the SZTFH did not in practice carry out most of its formal concession tasks, such as keeping concession registers and inspecting concession activities, and that the Competition Authority (GVH), the State Audit Office, the Integrity Authority, the Public Procurement Authority and the National Concession Office perform those functions adequately. It describes the Concession Council, chaired by the SZTFH's president with three SZTFH appointees, one delegate each from the GVH and the Public Procurement Council and a single government nominee, as partly problematic and partly superfluous.

Casino Concessions Are the Context

The bill was submitted on 8 September by Transport and Investment Minister Dávid Vitézy, according to Economx. Announcing it on 3 September, Prime Minister Péter Magyar said the authority had served private rather than public interests, and named casinos and tobacco retail as concessions that would be reviewed, Telex reported.

The casino question predates the bill. In June Vitézy announced a review of casino concessions granted in the weeks before the April election in Szeged, Győr, Miskolc, Pécs, Nyíregyháza, Sopron and Debrecen, some running until 2061, Szegedi Nap reported. Contextus reported that Treff-Klub Kft received 35-year terms for five of those venues, extended without a tender by the then national economy minister, Márton Nagy, which the law allows once half of a concession's term has elapsed. The SZTFH's own register shows a concession held by CAI Hungary Kft, linked to the businessman István Garancsi, running to 13 January 2061. Hungary caps casinos at 12 venues, and online casino and online poker are open only to casino concession holders, as our Hungary country profile sets out.

The SZTFH rejects the description of itself as the body that handed out those rights. In a statement on 15 July it said that "a koncessziók odaítéléséről nem az SZTFH dönt", that it does not decide the award of concessions, and that Parliament set the casino market's structure and concession processes in law. Responding to the abolition review on 1 September, it said it was an independent body accountable to Parliament, with about 400 staff, overseeing sectors that pay more than HUF 1,000 billion (approximately $3 billion) a year in taxes and contributions, and that it would cooperate with the minister.

The Consent Right Was the Lever, and It Now Sits With Ministers

The SZTFH's statement is technically right: ministers signed the concession contracts, and the authority did not choose the winners. But its prior consent was the one sign-off inside the procedure that did not belong to the government, and the act does not hand that role to another independent body. The audit and competition bodies the memorandum cites act after the event; the decision itself, from tender to signature to termination, now rests with a minister the government will designate by decree. For holders of long casino concessions, the important detail is that the act reaches pending procedures and gives the finance minister the full file within a month. A government that has said it wants to review pre-election awards now holds both the documents and the power to amend or terminate contracts without anyone else's consent. Whether those contracts can be unwound lawfully is a separate question, but the administrative obstacle is gone.

Gambling Supervision Is Now in Limbo, Not Reformed

The SZTFH still licenses remote betting, supervises online casinos, maintains the blocking list and enforces the payment rules, and its president still issues the decrees that govern them. Yet the authority doing all this has been accused by the prime minister of serving private interests, has lost a defining function, and awaits a justice ministry report that was due on 30 September and has not been made public. That is a difficult position from which to pursue unlicensed operators or process licence applications. The government's stated direction, moving the SZTFH's remaining tasks to bodies under its own control, would also replace a regulator answerable to Parliament with one answerable to ministers, a change licence holders will want spelled out before it happens rather than after. The regulatory map will show the same regulator in Hungary for now; what it controls is already smaller.

The Market Structure Is the Question the Government Has Not Raised

The debate in Budapest is about who controls concessions, not whether concessions should be the model. Hungary's online casino market is closed to anyone without a land-based casino concession, a rule the Court of Justice of the European Union found contrary to the freedom to provide services in Sporting Odds in 2018, and only two companies hold a remote betting licence. If the complaint is that connected operators won long, uncontested rights, the concession model is what made that possible. Moving the pen from a regulator to a minister changes who signs, not how many can compete.

Hungary has taken away its gambling regulator's say over concessions within a month of announcing it. Whether it uses that control to open the market or simply to change who holds it depends on decisions, and a report, the government has not yet published.