Official language: German
Population: 8,316,487
Currency: Euro (EUR)

Current Exchange Rate
1 GBP = 1.0681 EUR
1 USD = 0.6754 EUR

Casinos in Austria
The first legal casino in all of Europe opened in the Austrian city of Baden in 1765. The first modern casino came about in 1934 by a group that is known today as Casino Austria. They run all of the country's casinos – twelve in total – along with more than 50 other casinos in 18 different countries. These twelve casinos in Austria are magnificently fancy places with strict dress codes.

While Casino Austria has a monopoly over these large casinos in Austria, there are other places to gamble. In the late 1990s, new gambling laws in Austria made it legal to gamble anywhere as long as the wager is fifty cents or less. This means low-stakes games, slot machines, and other gambling methods have popped up in pubs and other places around the country. This immediately put pressure on the larger casinos, who have, strangely enough, responded by becoming even classier and more exclusive. Today the situation has settled down somewhat, and the casinos are less restrictive about who they let play.

Online Casinos in Austria
Online casinos in Austria are not controlled by the same monopoly that runs the traditional brick and mortar casinos in the country. In fact, some of Europe's largest internet casinos have roots in Austria, even though they are all licensed and "officially" headquartered in other countries. This is because even though Austria gives out licenses for companies to operate internet casinos, Austrian online casinos can only accept Austrian players.

This gives two choices for Austrians. They may either play at Austrian online casinos, where they use sites made specifically for an Austrian audience, or they can play online casino games at international gambling sites that are hosted in other countries. For a while, the Austrian government banned foreign internet casinos from advertising in Austria, but pressure from the EU made this stop. Today, Austrians are accepted at many of the world's best online casinos, where they can enjoy quality games in an open environment.