Draft:Gambling in Czech Republic

Gambling in the Czech Republic is legal, but poorly regulated. In 2012, the Czech Republic had more slot machines per capita than any other EU country, but gradually, due to regulation, the number of slot machines decreased.

Regulation
Czech gambling legislation is only partially regulated, with different approaches to the regulation of sports betting, casinos and online casinos.

Czech law defines 8 types of gambling activities: lotteries with cash prizes, betting on sports or social events, bingo, Slot machine, board games, raffles and tournaments with Card game.

There is some ambiguity in the laws regarding the activities that should be qualified as gambling. For example, fantasy sports does not fall under this definition.

History
In 2017, the Gambling Act was introduced, which introduced regulation of these activities, as well as a licensing scheme for operators of both land-based and online casinos. Casinos are obliged to record passport data of all players at the entrance.

This has helped to partially eliminate the black market for gambling and generate additional tax revenues for the budget, as well as protect the rights of players. The governments of the regions of the Czech Republic have the power to restrict or ban certain types of gambling. For example, some cities have banned bingo halls or card tournaments. Online casinos can operate in the Czech Republic if they obtain a government licence. Sites that violate this rule are blocked from accessing the country, and several hundred such sites have been blocked.

In 2010, the Czech Republic had more slot machines per capita than any other country in the European Union, but gradually, due to regulation, their number decreased, as of July 2019, there were 39 thousand slot machines in the Czech Republic, and the number of gambling establishments decreased from 7,600 (January 2012) to 1,800 (July 2019).

In 2019, the gambling tax was reduced to 21%. Since August 2020, the Prague mayor's office has been considering a complete ban on slot machines in the city. Previously, it was proposed to ban games only in some districts of the capital, but the country's Antimonopoly committee rejected the proposal. Finally, in September, the Czech government passed a decree banning all video lotteries, video slots, and slot machines in Prague from January 2021. The government plans to compensate for the lost profits by funding from the budgets of other regions, with losses estimated at $17.7 million.

In 2020, the operator Casino Kartáč Group filed a lawsuit against the Czech government, demanding compensation in the amount of 1.41 billion CZK (€53.8 million) for alleged lost profits, caused by a violation of the procedure for issuing permits for the operation of interactive video lottery terminals by the Czech Ministry of Finance. In January 2021, the District Court of Prague dismissed this lawsuit and subsequently also rejected the appeal against the verdict.