A bill has been introduced in the Czech parliament that would open the online market to foreign competition but impose limits on betting activity to combat problem gambling.
The legislation, which is still in the early stages, would allow operators in other EU countries to apply for licenses to set up shop in the country, a move the government hopes will allow it to capture from 600 million to 1 billion korunas in revenue (US$27 million-$46 million) it is missing in the current unlicensed market.
A key feature of the bill is its establishment of a central registry of online gamblers to allow their activities to be monitored for signs of problem gambling and to enforce proposed limits on losses per hour and per month.
The bill also addresses gaps in the land-based sector by banning gaming machines from pubs, bars and petrol stations and providing local authorities with greater powers to control the industry in their jurisdictions by giving them final say over whether to permit gambling in their jurisdictions and where it may be located.
The bill also ties the number of casinos and machine gaming venues to population, restricting casinos to cities with more than 40,000 inhabitants and limiting towns with fewer than 5,000 to one slot hall.
The bill also proposes to redraw licensing boundaries, moving the responsibility for issuing new machine gaming permits from the Finance Ministry to the Customs Administration and granting
The Finance Ministry says it wants the bill to take effect in 2016.
