Online Casino Law in Austria, Explained

Austria’s online casino question has a one-line answer and a long tail. The one line: a single company holds the federal concession for online casino, and every other site you can reach from Austria plays under a foreign licence. The long tail is where it gets interesting for players: a reform bill that would end the monopoly, a 1 January 2027 deadline for foreign operators, an advertising ban with real fines, and a wave of court cases in which players have reclaimed what they lost. We read the Federal Ministry of Finance pages, the bill’s timeline and the law-firm summaries; here’s what they say, in plain terms.

The short answer: one concession

Austrian gambling law is the Glücksspielgesetz, or GSpG. It reserves lotteries for one federal concession, and online casino counts as an “electronic lottery” under that concession. Österreichische Lotterien GmbH holds it and runs its online games through win2day.at. The term ends on 30 September 2027, per the Ministry of Finance concession list.

Two other layers sit beside it. Casinos Austria AG holds the concessions for the twelve land-based casinos, from Baden and Velden to Kitzbühel and Wien. Slot machines in arcades, the “kleines Glücksspiel”, are licensed by the federal states, not by the federal government; the Ministry lists six such operators.

There is no separate gambling regulator today. The Ministry of Finance grants the concessions and supervises them, and the tax offices collect the gambling levy. The full consolidated text of the GSpG is on the federal legal information system, RIS.

Where the foreign casinos fit

Everything else you can open from Austria, from the big crypto brands to the casinos on our own lists, holds a licence from somewhere else: Curaçao, Kahnawake, Anjouan, Malta. None of them holds an Austrian concession. Austrian comparison sites call this the “Graumarkt”, the grey market, and the better ones say so in their first paragraph.

The chart shows the spread on our Austria list. Two practical points follow from it. First, the regulator you’d complain to is the foreign one, not an Austrian authority. Second, the licence quality varies widely. Several Curaçao licences on our list show “assessment in progress” on the Curaçao Gaming Authority register, which means the licence is still being processed, and the Anjouan numbers could not be checked against a register at all. We put the licence on every card for that reason.

What § 52 says about advertising

The penalty rules sit in § 52 GSpG. Point 9 of paragraph 1 makes it an administrative offence to advertise prohibited games of chance in Austria, or to make such advertising possible, unless the Finance Minister approved it. The fine is up to €22,000 per offence. A Vienna administrative court upheld a €5,000 fine in 2016 where a website’s advertising was attributed to an unlicensed casino.

For players, the point is narrower than it sounds. The rule targets advertisers and those who enable them, and our sources describe no fines against players for playing. It does explain why Austrian casino ads look the way they do, and why the reform bill adds network and payment blocking: the advertising ban alone has not kept foreign casinos out.

The reform bill, step by step

The Glücksspielreformgesetz 2026 would end the online monopoly. It is not law yet. Here is the timeline as the Ministry and two law firms report it.

The Ministry’s August press release sets out the government’s side. As drafted, the number of online licences would be unlimited. A first licence would run up to five years and renewals up to ten. Applicants need a corporate seat in the EU or EEA, a supervisory board and at least €10 million in paid-up capital. The application fee is €70,000, the first licence €300,000.

What the reform would change for players

The player-protection package is the part you would notice at the cashier:

• One exclusion register across all operators and all game types.
• Cross-operator deposit limits: €250 a week for players under 26, €1,680 a month from 26, with higher limits possible from 23 on a risk basis.
• Slot limits: a maximum stake of €5 per game, a maximum win of €10,000 per game, at least two seconds per game, and a 15-minute break after 90 minutes of play.
• Blocking: network blocks ordered through the Telecoms Control Commission, and payment blocks ordered by the Anti-Fraud Office, which could tell banks to stop paying blacklisted operators within three banking days. A public blacklist of unlicensed operators. CMS dates the blocking powers to 30 September 2027.
• Advertising: rules on youth protection, addiction risk and how wins are shown, with details in a later Finance Ministry regulation. Nothing is published yet on bonuses or affiliates.

Which body issues licences is not settled in the sources we read. The drafts split the work between the Finance Minister, a gambling supervisory authority, the Anti-Fraud Office and the Telecoms Control Commission.

1 January 2027: why the date matters

The deadline is a condition for foreign operators, not a ban that switches on overnight. A former unlicensed operator only qualifies for a licence under the new law if it has paid its outstanding Austrian gambling tax, paid every final Austrian court judgment won by players, and stopped its Austrian offer from 1 January 2027. Stopping later triggers an 18-month bar, or 24 months if it is still active after 31 December 2029.

For a player, that means some casinos on today’s lists are likely to close Austrian accounts or block Austrian visitors around the turn of the year, while others may stay and give up on a licence. Our sources don’t say which will do what. If a casino you use announces it is leaving Austria, finish your ID checks and withdraw your balance early rather than late, and keep the cashier statements. We will update our Austria casino list as exits are announced.

Loss-reclaim lawsuits: the facts

This is the part Austrian forums talk about most. Under the logic Austrian courts apply, a contract with an operator that has no Austrian concession is void, so money paid under it can be reclaimed.

• OGH, 5 Ob 91/25f, 23 September 2025 (case number from a law-firm write-up, not read in RIS): the Supreme Court rejected an operator’s appeal, and the operator had to repay a player’s net loss of €39,381.40 from play between September 2020 and April 2021. Recovery was allowed even though the player knew the operator had no Austrian concession, and a netted transaction statement was accepted as evidence.
• CJEU, C-440/23, 16 April 2026 (a German player against Malta-licensed operators): EU law does not stop a member state banning online casino while allowing other gambling, a Maltese licence is not an EU passport, and players may reclaim stakes lost in breach of such a ban. The court did not find the claims abusive.
• The reverse case: the OGH ordered an Austrian player to repay €7,152.71 in winnings to an unlicensed sports betting operator, on the same void-contract logic.

Litigation funders such as AdvoFin are active in Austria, and the reform makes paying these judgments a licence condition. The Ministry puts the number of players concerned at about 20,000.

Age, tax and help

Online casino in Austria is 18+. Winnings are generally not taxed for private players; the levy falls on the operator. Our guide to tax on casino winnings in Austria sets out what the GSpG says and where the sources are thin.

If gambling stops being fun, the nationwide Glücksspielsucht hotline of the Medical University of Vienna is free on 0800 20 5242. Spielsuchthilfe in Vienna offers free, confidential counselling for all of Austria on 01 544 13 57, and the Ministry keeps a directory of help services by federal state. Our responsible gambling page covers limits and self-exclusion tools.

What this means for our readers

Every casino and bonus in our Austria section is offered by an operator with a foreign licence and no Austrian concession. We state that licence on every card and every page, along with what the register shows, so you can judge it yourself. Bonus figures come mostly from Austrian review sites and are cross-checked where operator terms could be read.

If you do compare offers, compare them on the maths. Our Austria welcome bonus page shows what each package costs to clear, the wagering calculator runs any offer, and the Slotrave review and 20Bet review go deeper on two of the brands. How we score licences is on how we rate. Set a budget before you start, and treat any bonus as paid playtime, not income.

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