Slovakia’s Parliament Annuls President’s Gambling Law Veto

Slovak National Council voted on the country’s new gambling act that legislators approved on December 4th last year…

…but President, Andrej Kiska, put a veto on that decision on December 21st.

Now, parliament legislators overrode his decision, so online gambling changes in this Central European country are back on track.

The New Gambling Act

The changes in the law were first introduced in 2005, so the new act covers several additional issues regarding online gambling. The biggest one is allowing foreign operators to apply for the Slovakian online license. All companies with their base in Slovakia or any other EU country would have permission to apply. Of course, the European Commission has the final word in this case.

“[The draft act] would take technological progress and the findings of regulatory authorities in other European countries into more fully, while simultaneously improving the protection of players from possible harmful effects directly related to services provided in this sector. The Ministry explained that operators would need to provide the newly created regulatory authority with access to a server so that it can have oversight of data,” according to an official statement.

End of Online Gambling Monopoly

By doing so, a state-owned national lottery operator, Tipos, will finally stop being the only Slovak online gambling market operator. From now on, Tipos will be in charge only for the online lotteries, bingo, and raffles.

Other than that, new operators will be in charge of online casinos and sports betting products. If a company wishes to grant their license…

…they will have to pay 3 million euros for one, and 5 million euros for two permits. The plan is to make licenses valid for ten years, with the possibility of issuing another five-year license.

But, since more than 200 gaming sites have been blacklisted by Slovakian authorities (including some big names in the industry, like 888 Casino and Bet365) if they wish to obtain a license, they would have to wait 12 months to apply.

New Regulatory Office

In order to centralize gambling sector activities like supervision, licensing, istration, etc…

…the country would establish a new Regulatory Office for Gambling that would centralize gambling sector activities.

The tax rate for online gambling will be at a 22% plus an additional 0.7% rate for the funding of a new Regulatory Office.

Why the President Disapproved?

The Slovak President, Andrej Kiska, was against the approval of this legislation for various reasons. One of the main problems was the fact that each Slovakian wager had to submit his ID card when making his online on gambling websites.

According to the President, submitting a document of that type online would put personal data at a huge risk.

New Licenses

The Slovakian government’s plan is to start accepting online casino applications from March and to give out the official approvals somewhere around July. When it comes to online betting applications, they should be submitted in July, but the new operators won’t be able to accept any bets until July of 2020.

Source:

“Slovakia’s parliament overrides President’s gambling law veto”, Steven Stradbrooke, calvinayre.com, January 30, 2019.