A study done by economist Prof. DDr. Friedrich Schneider concludes that the gambling monopoly in Austria is neither in line with the market nor proportionate, as it cannot be justified either on the basis of market failure or player protection.
The members of the OVWG are denied legal protection in Austria due to the ongoing violation of the freedom to provide services and the right to a fair trial by the Republic of Austria. The OVWG therefore lodged a complaint with the European Commission on 10.1.2022 with the aim of initiating infringement proceedings against the Republic.
2021 was another year that will go down in history as "exciting" - be it due to the political earthquakes that occurred in Austria, the ever-present threat of lockdowns or the ongoing discussions surrounding compulsory vaccination.
Modern player protection software is capable of detecting potentially addictive behavior in online gambling and initiating measures if necessary. This ensures personal and individual protection for those affected. At an event organized by the Austrian Betting and Gambling Association (OVWG), international experts from science and industry discussed the topic of player protection and gambling addiction from psychological, medical and technical perspectives....
The consistency checks of the Austrian supreme courts fail to meet the requirements of Union law: In the overall assessments of the circumstances, actual circumstances, namely the practical application of gambling regulations, play too little of a prominent role; moreover, the assumptions underlying the objectives of gambling regulation are only insufficiently scrutinized. The coherence checks, which are to be carried out again and again in any case, thus fail to meet the requirements of EU law in terms of the level of control to be applied by the national courts. This is particularly evident in the area of advertising....
Austrian sports and the online gambling and betting industry have always been important economic partners. Every year, 100 million euros are invested in sponsorship and marketing in the Austrian sports and media landscape. These investments could be increased even further: Last year, we made a proposal for the introduction of a contemporary online gambling licensing system, in which additional revenues, such as any license fees, would be earmarked for grassroots and professional sports...
Newly published by Mohr Siebeck: European Union law requires Member States to regulate gambling law in a coherent manner. Tristan Barczak and Bernd J. Hartmann show that Austrian gambling law violates this coherence requirement several times...
OVWG is a new partner of sportsbusiness.at!
Monopolies have often been justified under the belief that the state is better placed to protect its gamblers. But that’s why countries should have stringent consumer protection rules: it’s the rules that protect the consumer, not whether there is a monopoly or not....
In the study, the University of Vienna comes to the conclusion that the current advertising activities of the Austrian gambling monopolists create a strong incentive to gamble via various strategies. Furthermore, the experts from the University of Munich concluded that all of the monopolists' advertising strategies examined by the University of Vienna are highly problematic with regard to ECJ requirements and that the "gambling makes you rich" advertising strategy in particular is blatantly contrary to EU law....
