The Austrian National Council has amended federal gaming law to the extent that Casinos Austria could see the end of its longstanding monopoly on casino gaming.

The expansion of casino licenses from the current 12 to 15 could result in operators other than Casinos Austria gaining a foothold in the domestic market. Casino licenses from now on must be offered on a European Union-wide basis.

There is still some question as to how “official” such an offering must be, but in any case, if an operator within the E.U. becomes aware of a license being up for bid, he or she will be able to submit a proposal.

In any case, changes to the law in the areas of slot arcades and poker rooms should result in more competition for the existing casinos.

In the past, slot arcades were limited to offering stakes of 50 euro cents and jackpots of €20. But the new law allows arcades with 10-50 machines to set maximum stakes of €10 and payouts of €10,000. The machines must all be linked to a central government accounting system, and arcades will be required to implement strict identity registration systems involving player ID cards.

Locations such as bars and cafés may offer a maximum of three stand-alone machines, but on these devices, stakes are limited to €1 and payouts to €1,000.

Most of the changes to gaming regulations have been made in the spirit of protecting the player. For example, arcade machines will be fitted with a shutdown mechanism, which will automatically turn the machine off after two hours of consecutive play by the same person. In non-arcade settings, the machines will allow a single player only three hours of game time within a 24-hour period.

The increased win potential from arcade machines in effect will put them in competition with casino slots. To counter this, the law prohibits arcades from offering progressive jackpots, allowing only fixed payouts. A further check on the arcades is the ruling that venues with 15 or more machines cannot be located within a 15-kilometer radius of a casino. In cities with population of 500,000 or more—Vienna is the only one—the distance is 2 kilometers.

By GGB Staff

Staff writers for Global Gaming Business magazine. Las Vegas, Nevada.