Capital City Language Population Currency Regulator Gambling permitted Prague Czech 10.65 million Czech koruna Ministry of Finance Casinos, slot machine halls, lotteries, betting, online gambling Central Europe, beautiful nature, ancient castles, fairly developed and well regulated gambling business with hundreds of casinos and gaming halls – this is the Czech Republic. The Czech Republic is a beautiful European country with an ancient history, developed economy and 10.5 million people. According to official data released in 2018 by the Czech Ministry of Finance, the gambling industry generated 224.1 billion crowns in 2017, with 184.3 billion paid out to winners, bringing the industry to a total of 39.8 billion or 1.77 billion US dollars. . Legislation and Regulators The new Gambling Law No. 186, adopted in September 2016, provides for the phased introduction of new regulations until 2020. By that time, each player will be entered into the database and the monitoring system will be launched. The law requires casinos/gaming rooms to verify the identity and age of each of their patrons upon entering the premises. This will reduce social tension, exclude games for people suffering from gambling addiction. The Ministry of Finance controls the gaming industry. The site of this department has a special section dedicated to the gaming industry. The Ministry of Finance publishes annual reports on the state of affairs in the industry, publishes lists of licensed gambling operators, as well as a blacklist with the addresses of gambling sites whose activities are prohibited in the territory of the republic. Land-based casinos and slot machine halls in the Czech Republic According to the data of the Ministry of Finance mentioned at the beginning of the report, the Czechs spent 12.8 billion crowns on “live games” in 2017, which is how table games in land-based casinos are classified in the republic, almost 2 billion of this money amounted to establishment income. “Technical games”, that is, slot machines, brought the business many times more profit – 22.3 billion, with a total turnover of 114 billion. That is, almost half of the turnover of the country’s gaming industry is slots. There are tens of thousands of these machines in the country, they can stand both in separate equipped halls (at least 15 in number) and in public catering establishments (bars, pubs, etc.). There are more than 150 classic casinos with table games (“live games”) in the Czech Republic, there are also at least a hundred slot machine halls. The city with the largest number of casinos is the capital city of Prague. The largest casino in terms of area is located in the small town of Znojmo, on the border with Austria. Online casino in the Czech Republic Innovations in the legislation of recent years have led to the fact that online casinos on the Internet have the opportunity to legally operate in the Czech Republic. At the same time, national legislation has set quite high (up to 40%) tax rates for such sites. At the moment, 6 operators have ventured into the legal Czech market and offer online gambling services to players. The government blocks over 200 casino sites operating under foreign jurisdictions. The “black list” of blocked casinos is posted on the website of the Czech Ministry of Finance.
