Hungary’s TISZA-led government has cleared out the leadership of Szerencsejáték Zrt, the state-owned gambling and betting monopoly, appointing Marcell Olajos as chairman and removing four board members effective 15 July.
Finance and Economy Minister András Kármán announced Olajos’s appointment on Tuesday. It is the first major shake-up of the operator since Péter Magyar’s government took office on 9 May, following TISZA’s election victory in April.
Kármán said the changes deliver on TISZA’s pledge to remove political influence and cronyism from state enterprises and to restore transparency, accountability and professional governance.
Political influence and unauthorised advantage are a thing of the past at Szerencsejáték Zrt.
The minister pledged “corruption-free and transparent management” across Hungary’s public enterprises.
Who was removed
The restructuring follows the dismissal in late June of Zoltán Guller, former chairman of Szerencsejáték Zrt and a senior tourism official under Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz administration. Guller had overseen one of Hungary’s most strategically important state enterprises, which holds a monopoly over the national lottery and a dominant position in the retail sports betting market.
Effective 15 July, board members Krisztina Rédey, Gábor Bordás, Szabolcs Ágostházy and Zsófia Illés-Puka were removed. Marianna Gabriella Poltné Palásthy, the wife of former Prosecutor General Péter Polt, resigned.
Poltné Palásthy criticised the removals in comments to Hungarian media, describing the move as a “politically motivated purge” and accusing TISZA of the same practices it had attributed to Fidesz.
A politically motivated purge.
Part of a wider state-enterprise review
The changes form part of a broader review of state-owned organisations launched after TISZA’s win in April. The programme is central to Magyar’s efforts to revive an economy that has ranked at the bottom of the EU for the past three years.
As part of that work, the government will examine Szerencsejáték Zrt’s governance, monopoly privileges and the distribution of gambling revenues under the previous administration. Particular attention will fall on how state gambling profits were allocated through sponsorships and public funding during the Fidesz era.
The review has also renewed scrutiny of the operator’s historic distribution of billions of forints in grants through its subsidiaries, with critics arguing the funds disproportionately benefited organisations aligned with the former government.
What it means for the market
The review could shape the future direction of Hungary’s gambling market. The country opened its online sports betting market to European Economic Area operators in 2023, but analysts believe the government may revisit concessions inherited from the Orbán administration while considering reforms to improve transparency and competition.
Any changes are likely to focus on governance rather than the state’s dominant role. Szerencsejáték Zrt generates more than €3bn in annual revenue and contributes around €447m in taxes and regulatory payments, giving the government little incentive to dismantle the monopoly.
It remains unclear whether Magyar or Kármán will reopen the Gambling Act of 1991. The Orbán administration ran that process from 2022 to 2023, aiming to bring competition to the market by liberalising sports betting. The tender drew no interest from rivals willing to take on licences, in part because of the privileges Szerencsejáték Zrt retained. Austria offers a nearby comparison, where lawmakers are moving to end the state gambling monopoly under a leaked draft law.
For now, the board overhaul settles the question of who runs the operator. The larger question of how far TISZA is willing to reshape the monopoly it has inherited is still open.
Source: Hungarian Ministry of Finance and Economy
