The Czech Republic, which once had more slot machines per capita than any other country in Europe, has in the last few years seen the number of machines drop precipitously under government pressure.
The government attack on casinos and gaming machine bars has been led for the last seven years by Finance Minister Alena Schillerová and under her landmark Gambling Law of 2017 the numbers have been cut in half, to less than 39,000.
Schillerová took something of a victory lap last week declaring “I’m definitely very satisfied with how things are going. The Czech Republic has ceased to be a casino in the heart of Europe. Since January 2012, the number of casinos is down from 7,600 to roughly 1,800—one quarter as many. So that’s a great result.”
Last year most of those 1,800 were re-licensed and now operate under tougher regulations that make it harder for them to avoid taxes and which fight addictive behavior by requiring players to take breaks and encourages responsible gaming.
Soon the government will introduce a system that will keep track of people banned from gaming, such as people on welfare or who are on the road to bankruptcy—and ensure they can’t go into a casino.
In this change of atmosphere 457 cities and towns have passed ordinances banning casinos from their city limits. This includes some districts within the capital city of Prague, some of which have “zero tolerance” policies.
While once there were hundreds of slot machine pubs and taverns, most have vanished, and none will have their licenses renewed, according to Schillerová. The minister has also taken aim at so-called quiz or trivia machines that some critics insist are merely slot machines masquerading as innocent quiz games.
Under her orders agents have seized about 3,000 such machines, using as their excuse the fact that owners declined to pay slot machine taxes on them.
