Reports CZECH REPUBLIC MARKET
Game Over? Czech Republic
A decade ago Czechia had more gaming machines per capita than any other European country. Today tells a different story. The number of casinos has dropped by three quarters, the number of slots has halved and with a recent ban on slots in Prague city,
figures look set to fall even lower. With an increase in taxes and a second
wave of lockdown, the Czech Republic is having a very bleak time.
municipalities have implemented total bans on casinos or gaming halls.
Once upon a time the Czech gambling market was booming. Te Czech Republic was traditionally one of the most successful and buoyant markets in Europe and a cash cow for many in the industry who have enjoyed years of selling or operating gaming machines in the country.
Back in 2011 there were almost 102,000 slots in Czech dropping to around 70,000 in 2014. Today that figure is around 36,800 whilst the number of gaming venues has dropped from over 8,350 (of which 8,000 were games rooms and 350 were casinos) in 2011 to 1,162 at the beginning of this year divided between 580 casinos and 582 gaming halls.
Tis is a drop of almost 30 per cent in venues P34 NEWSWIRE / INTERACTIVE / MARKET DATA
since 2018 and a 70 per cent decline since 2016 when there were over 4,000 venues. Slots in bars and restaurants have also all but disappeared.
So what happened?
In the Czech Republic, although gambling is legalised and regulated at state level, an amendment was added to the Lottery Act in 2012 which granted each individual municipal region the right to impose restrictions or bans on certain activities relating to their own policies.
Czech is made up of 14 regions (kraje) and 6,258 local municipalities. Prague is divided into 57 municipal parts which since 2001 have been grouped into 22 numbered administrative districts. At the moment around 457 Czech
Meanwhile the 2016 Gambling Act introduced tougher restrictions for existing licences in a bid to help the country fight gambling addiction and tax evasion issues. Te idea was to combat gambling problems after several reports painted a damaging picture of the number of problem gamblers.
Te number of Czechs who gamble has been growing. A report showed in the last 12 months up to 50 per cent of adults have played games of chance, particularly lotteries. Te opening of the online environment in 2017 is also partly responsible for the increase.
It is estimated that 1.6 per cent of the population over the age of 15 are at risk of developing problem gambling issues. Tis is around 145,000 people of which 74,000 fall into the high risk category.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94
