Austria
These terminals have also been sold into Spain with 336 units in place by end 2013.
Meanwhile horse racing in Austria began in the 18th century and the first races were held back in 1778. The Jockey Club was set up in 1867 and in 1982 the Jockey Club of Directors for Austria was reorganised.
ONLINE
Currently online gambling laws in Austria dictate that Austrian based companies are eligible for online gaming licences, mobile phones and interactive television but only Austrian residents can use them. Foreign operators will come across bureaucratic and legal blocks. Essentially this is legal under EU law despite challenges from online betting companies who have attempted to break the national monopolies.
Online betting on Football is hugely popular as are win- ter sports such as skiing and snowboarding. There is also a huge interest in Austria for Poker. Over €110m was wagered in 2012 on internet casinos and sports- books.
The government issues online gambling licences in Austria for companies within the country but websites can only accept Austrian players. On the other hand Austrian players can participate in online gaming on both Austrian and international websites. Only Austrian companies can advertise their products in the country. Online gambling revenue is taxed at a rate of 40 per- cent.
As such some of the large internet gambling companies are operating in Austria despite their HQ being in other offshore jurisdictions.
In June 2010 the National Assembly passed a gambling law which was criticised for its strict regime, which opened up the market to slots whilst the number of casino licences was raised from 12 to 15 and stakes and prizes were set with a maximum payout of €10,000.
For many years Austria permitted its domestically licensed companies to operate alongside international sites, but this created some confusion when it came to taxes. The government has since looked at a way to encourage gamblers to use domestic sites and in October 2012 the government awarded an exclusive licence for 15 years to Osterreichische Lotterien (Austrian Lotteries).
This was primarily for casino games and did not affect sports betting licences for domestic companies or the ability to wager on any sites. But it restricted advertis- ing for foreign companies who also operate casinos and poker alongside sports books.
Austrian Lotteries’ Win2day is the online gaming plat- form of Casino Austria and Austrian Lotteries and pro- vides internet gaming for casino games, poker, bingo, sports books and classic lottery games.
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Online betting on Football is hugely popular as are winter sports such as skiing and
snowboarding. There is also a huge interest in Austria for Poker.
It is open to over 18s and only Austrian residents. Under the current law players do not pay taxes on any win- ning
Sports betting on Win2day is run in cooperation with Tipp3 which was added to the win2day portfolio in 2013. Sports betting transactions are handled using the players existing Win2day wallet.
Three types of sports bets are offered on the Win2Day site – classic sports bets, live bets and Quicktipp. Win2Day launched a new TV and internet advertising campaign in September 2014.
Meanwhile
Tipp3.at has been operational since 2006 and in 2012 live bets were added to the full Tipp3 prod- uct range. Bar the range of betting options the Austrian Sports Betting offers games of skill.
Novomatic’s division Greentube provides solutions for this sector. At the moment licences for online gaming
are granted to third party providers in regulated mar- kets. These providers then make products available to an interested audience via their platforms and share their earnings with Novomatic as the licensor. Novomatic customers include Sky and Rank Group. Greentube has licences to work in Italy for example and the German state of Schleswig Holstein.
Cashpoint was set up in 1996 and operates in the sports betting online sector and has an extensive platform and more than 5,000 outlets in the form of betting shops, kiosks and venues with self service terminals.
The 2012 the Pfleger case (named after applicant Robert Pfleger who was taken to court for illegal operations of slots in gas stations) asked the CJEU to look the restric- tive gambling law. This is turn saw the CJEU take a clos- er look at Austria’s laws although the Pfleger ruling applied to only land based operations.
In May 2014 the CJEU stepped in and ruled Austria was not being consistent with its laws and this created an unfair market place and it is thought new legislation will come into place in the near future.
In March this year Austria implemented IP blocking of online gambling sites not holding an Austrian licence. However this type of blocking is viewed as unfavourable by the European Commission and a European Digital Single Market plan was unveiled at the beginning of May which could in turn have some impli- cations.
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