Can Austria’s new iGaming regime deliver channelisation?
The chips have fallen. After weeks of arduous negotiations, a draft of Austria’s new gambling law has now been submitted to parliament and the European Union. Following endless amendments and redrafts, it sets out a framework for a fully regulated, multi-operator online market.
Having finalised the draft last week, the government is now racing against the clock. On 1 October 2027, the 15-year sole licence for online gaming and lotteries – currently held by Austrian Lotteries’ subsidiary Win2Day – is set to expire. If all goes to plan, this date will mark the end of one of the last online casino monopolies in Europe.
For Austria’s EU-licensed grey market, however, there’s a catch. Anyone currently active in the market will have to cease offering gambling services by January 2027 or face an 18-month ban from the market. For operators still active in the market by 2030, this will increase to two years.
Between January and October next year – at the earliest – there will be a nine-month hiatus on unlicensed operations. Would-be licensees will be expected to use this time to settle existing player claims and any unpaid taxes from previous years. The claims alone, according to the Austrian Betting and Gaming Association (OVWG), amount to several million euros.
Timeline doubts for Austria’s iGaming target
As political analyst Felix Geyer points out, it is far from guaranteed that the government will meet this deadline. If, as expected, the law is passed in parliament in July, it will kick off a three-month EU notification period, meaning the law could come into force in October at the earliest.
This gives the Finance Ministry approximately a year to set up its new tender process, review applications and award licences. During this time, the lotteries licence – which is set to be split from the online gaming licence and remain a monopoly – will also need to be awarded. Preparations for a new gambling authority, which will take over from the Finance Ministry, will also commence.
“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,” Geyer tells iGB. “Especially since I don’t expect them to begin before the law actually comes into force.”
There is also speculation that challenges from Malta at the EU level could delay the notification process. Amid this uncertainty, there are fears that the transition period could stretch out longer than expected, creating a vacuum in the legal market.
An earlier draft of the law obtained by iGB had initially mentioned a firm October 2027 deadline for issuing the licences. By the time the draft was submitted to parliament, this date was conspicuously absent.
“I would hope the Finance Ministry has clear communication from the moment the law is passed so everybody knows what to expect,” Geyer adds. “This process is about player protection and clearing the black market. If there is uncertainty, that could potentially lead players and operators back to the black market.”
Good actors have already withdrawn from Austria’s iGaming market
On 15 June, Austria’s Krone newspaper reported that the government were planning an 18-month “cooling off” period, increasing to 24 months from 2030. This proposal, which remains in the draft as a threat to non-compliant operators, was reportedly favoured by the Chamber of Commerce and conservative People’s Party (ÖVP), as well as monopolist Casinos Austria. It was also publicly supported by Tipico-owned Admiral, a prominent land-based operator.
If adopted, the proposals would have given operators like Tipico and Merkur – which ceased their online operations well ahead of the new legislation – a headstart in the market. Meanwhile, EU-licensed operators which had offered services in the past 18 months before market opening would have been forced to wait on the sidelines.
As it is, however, only existing licensee Casinos Austria, and its subsidiary Austrian Lotteries, will stand to benefit from the nine-month transition. According to Geyer, this could set a dangerous precedent. “If we’re looking at the contested grey market operators, they made a conscious choice and there were operators like Merkur and Tipico which chose to respect this legislation and they withdrew from the market with their online offerings,” he explained.
“It’s a little bit sad that these good actors that followed the rules when it became clear had nothing to reward them. Next time something like this happens, everybody is going to operate in this grey structure until the last minute.”
Black market threat
For its part, the OVWG is sceptical that the transitional period will lead to high channelisation to Win2Day or legal land-based operators. Instead, it predicts that the black market could emerge as the biggest winner.
“The only thing that would happen if the European operators – a significant portion of the market – were forced out for a certain period of time is that players would move to the black market because they already operate in Austria and the brands are well known,” said OVWG President Simon Priglinger-Simader. “I don’t think there is a world where there would be a land-based operator taking over all the customers. That’s just wishful thinking.”
This was apparently a concern of the Social Democrats (SPÖ), who reportedly favoured a quicker market opening to implement player protections as soon as possible. Ultimately, however, a compromise position was reached in the form of the nine-month transition.
High price of market entry
With the transition period, player claims and taxes to repay, and a proposed 45% online tax rate, entry to the Austrian market will not come cheap. Reportedly, even the biggest players in the market are calculating whether market entry is feasible.
“In principle, this is a landmark and long-overdue shift,” says Arthur Stadler, founding partner of Stadler Partner law firm in Vienna. “Still, in practice, the entry price is steep enough that some operators may simply decide it isn’t worth paying.”
Stadler describes the player claims and backdated taxes as “essentially a paywall into the licensed market”. To make matters worse, tax already paid on the reimbursed winnings is unlikely to be repaid. The legal expert believes the incumbent monopolist was clearly behind many of these high barriers to entry.
“Two out of three major elements contradict each other,” he points out. “If the Ministry of Finance aims at maximising retroactive tax recovery, a mandatory blackout period generates a tax base of zero for that period. You can’t optimise for both at once. And operators are left wondering whether revenue collection or market exclusion is the actual goal.”
Tackling channelisation goals
As with all newly regulated markets, the key question will be whether politicians can achieve the goals they have set for themselves: improving player protection and clamping down on the black market.
“The aim of this change is to create an attractive online gambling offering that ensures a high level of channelisation into the legal market and the highest possible standards of player protection,” the Finance Ministry wrote in a previous draft of the law obtained by iGB.
The government hopes to squeeze the black market with cease-and-desist orders, network and payment blocking, among other enforcement tactics. On the other hand, legal operators will be subject to stringent player protection requirements. These include mandatory 15-minute “cooling off” periods after every 90 minutes of play, online stake caps of €5 per play, restrictions on the speed of spins, and a cap on winnings of €10,000 per game.
Players under 26 will also be subject to deposit limits of €250 per week, which rises to €1,680 per week for older players. From the age of 23, however, players can apply for higher limits based on their earnings and credit score. It remains to be seen if these strict requirements will be compatible with high channelisation.
The German example
Like neighbouring Germany, Geyer believes Austria could benefit from regulating games suppliers to ensure black market operators struggle to access the most popular games. “In my opinion, if you manage to cut off the supply to black market operators, then you also cut off the players,” he said. “It’s a free market in the end, and the most attractive product is the one generating the highest revenues. You’re not going to eradicate the black market simply through restrictions.”
Nevertheless, Germany, which opened its online betting and gaming market in 2021, could also act as a cautionary tale. According to data from intelligence platform Yield Sec (now owned by Gaming Compliance International), 54% of GGR in Germany was generated on the black market in 2024, accounting for around €4 billion in revenue.
The industry trade body DOCV told iGB in March that channelisation in Germany hovered around 50% for 2025, despite the regulator claiming it was closer to 80%. Operators blame this on the high tax rates and gamut of regulations, which they claim has straightjacketed the legal industry. Similarly, in Austria, “the regulated market will be subject to much stricter rules from day one”, Geyer points out.
“With a €5 maximum stake, a minimum spin time of two seconds and a €10,000 maximum payout, I think it will be easy to find a more attractive offering on the black market,” he adds.
As the end of Austria’s iGaming monopoly becomes a certainty, a number of questions still hang in the air. With the tender potentially due to kick off this year, the coming months will reveal if operators are willing to go all in on the Austrian market.