After nearly two years of delays and discussions about the details and quality of the draft, it was hastily approved by a majority of four of the fuve political parties, because of the feared judgment of the ECJ in the Austrian „Engelmann“ case, C-64/08.

It is expected, that the court in Luxembourg will decide, that the extension, without public tender, of the six Austrian Casino licences in January 1998, the extension of the other six Casino licences in January 2001, as well as the issue of the Lottery licence (six of 45, Toto, Bingo, Scratchcards etc.) and its licence extensions, for winwin, win2day, tipp3, by simple rulings of the Ministry of Finance in October 1997, was unlawful.

Therefore all those licences could soon be subject to EU wide public tender, which to the annoyance of the local parties, inevitably has to be done in accordance to the relevant EU regulations.

Since April, the new 2010 part of the amendment is in Brussels awaiting notification from the TRIS. The standstill period expires on 16th of July 2010. However, small, last minute, changes, in the 2010 part of the gambling law enacted yesterday, might influence the validity of the version presented to TRIS.

The effect of the new law, which will become effective 1st of January 2011, will be the destruction of about 95% of the existing concessionaires and operating companies ( over 1300 mostly small and very small companies with over 10,000 people expecting unemployment) in Austria within the next three to four years in favour of approximately 15 to 20 new concessionaires under excessive rules and regulations.

For instance the new rules dictate that any company applying for one of the new licences may not have an owner with more than a 25 % share in the company.

A last minute intiative, which illogically compares AWPs with a one Euro stake to casino slots with a Euros90 stake has resulted in the government planning to introduce a players card, which fully identifies the player and allows limits to be set for spending money on gambling machines and VLTs in Austria. This will be introduced into both single sites and casinos within one year.

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