Austria’s Ministry of Finance submitted its draft gambling law to the European Commission on Tuesday, starting a mandatory three-month standstill period before the legislation can be adopted. The draft caps land-based casino concessions at 13 and replaces the online monopoly with open licensing, with the restructured market due to open in October 2027.
The notification is the first formal step outside Austria for a package the ÖVP, SPÖ and NEOS coalition has been assembling since late 2025. A draft leaked in May set out the end of the online monopoly. The version now sitting with the Commission adds the licensing structure, transitional rules for operators currently serving Austrian players without authorisation, and player protection duties that apply across retail and online.
Thirteen casino licences, awarded in packages
The law sets a maximum of 13 casino licences, which the ministry may award in packages rather than one by one. Licensing authorities would have to ensure a balanced geographical distribution and limit competition between casinos, conditions the ministry presents as player protection measures.
Casinos Austria operates all 12 current land-based concessions and has publicly argued for keeping the package model. Smaller prospective entrants want individual concessions instead.
Niklas Sattler, a former Casinos Austria employee now involved in a challenger bid, expects the licences to be split into one package of six and one of seven. On that split, a second large operator such as Merkur could enter the market, while companies bidding for a single venue would have no route in.
“We believe it’s quite unfair,” Sattler said.
A 1 January 2027 deadline for unlicensed operators
Online licensing is the part of the reform that changes the commercial map. The draft opens online gambling to an unlimited number of licensees, which separates Austria from jurisdictions that have gone the other way. New Zealand capped online casino licences at 15 earlier this year.
Operators currently serving Austrian customers without authorisation would have to stop by 1 January 2027 to be immediately eligible to apply. Those that miss the date face an 18-month waiting period, rising to 24 months from 2030.
Applicants would also have to settle outstanding tax obligations and unpaid claims involving roughly 20,000 affected players, liabilities that built up during years of limited enforcement against operators serving the market from outside it.
Deposit limits, exclusion register and slot restrictions
The draft creates a national exclusion register covering casino gambling, slot machines and online platforms. It would combine voluntary self-exclusions with operator-imposed bans, so an excluded player cannot move between products or companies to get around a restriction. Austria has not previously had a single register spanning all three verticals.
Mandatory deposit limits would apply to online gambling and slot machines, with lower thresholds for adults aged 18 to 26. Maximum slot stakes come down, game speeds slow, and players face a compulsory break after 90 consecutive minutes of play.
Operators would be legally required to assess the addiction potential of their own products, with the resulting analyses feeding research and policy on gambling harm. A digital supervisory platform would oversee the licensed sector and run a central deposit limit that sits outside individual operators’ systems.
Enforcement tools and doubts about channelisation
The enforcement framework includes payment blocking, blacklisting and network blocking to push players toward licensed sites. The Austrian Betting and Gaming Association (OVWG) is sceptical that the transitional arrangements will move much volume to Win2Day or licensed land-based operators, and expects the black market to gain from the changeover instead. Unregulated online gambling handled $5.9 trillion in wagers in 2025, according to the Gambling Consultancy International estimate published in May.
Timing is the other open question. Win2Day’s monopoly licence expires in October 2027, which is the date the ministry is working toward, and licences would need to be tendered and awarded inside roughly 12 months.
“Given how slow political processes in Austria can be, I’m sceptical about whether they will be able to hand out licences within 12 months,” political analyst Felix Geyer told iGaming Business. “Especially since I don’t expect them to begin before the law actually comes into force.”
The standstill period runs to early November, during which the Commission may raise state aid or single market objections. Austria’s parliamentary process can run in parallel, so the shape of the final text will depend on what Brussels says and what the coalition concedes before the vote. Operators weighing whether to exit the market before 1 January 2027 have five months to decide, and that decision now carries an 18-month penalty if they get it wrong.
Source: Austrian Federal Ministry of Finance
