New Czech gambling bill set for June
Government calls on finance minister to introduce regulatory proposals which are "fully compatible" with EU law.
The Czech government has called upon its finance minister to introduce an EU-friendly gambling regulations before the end of June, after a previous bill was said to have “a number of shortcomings”.
Last year’s proposals, which required operators to be domiciled in the European country, was subject to a detailed opinion from the European Commission in November that suggested “entirely new legislation” was the “most favourable option”.
A resolution passed by the country’s government last month set a 30 June deadline for the finance minister to amend the laws relating to adoption of the gambling legislation, requiring the amended version to be fully compatible with EU laws and the “conclusions of the notification procedure”.
In a blog post for law firm DLA Piper, Zuzana Zahumenska suggested the Czech Republic’s egaming market could become more friendly to foreign entrepreneurs “quite soon”.
Zakumenska noted the possibility of an amended bill eliminating “current uncertainty about the conditions under which the provision of various online gambling services by foreign entities is allowed under Czech law”.
The EC opinion on last year’s bill came shortly after the publication of the European Commission Action Plan on online gambling, which called upon Member States to fall in line with EU law as a “prerequisite of a successful EU policy on online gambling”.