Changes in Hungarian Gambling Laws Expected To End State Monopoly

Online gambling in Hungary is about to drastically change. Under the current Hungarian gambling laws a state owned National Lottery monopoly, Szerencsejáték Zrt. controls all online gambling within the country. In order to be more in line with the European Union regulations, Hungary is considering opening up its gambling market to licensed free competition and ending the monopoly.

Szerencsejáték Zrt. put forth a request for tender offers for a complete online gambling platform capable of providing both internet based gambling as well as online sportsbooks in Hungary. Bids are only excepted from established companies with a proven track capable of delivering a complete all inclusive solution within one scalable package.

Bids will be accepted until May 16, 2011, with the top three lowest bids made public on June 3. The winning bid will be announced on June 6. Currently online gambling is limited to the scarce selection of games provided by the state monopoly and semi-legal foreign based online casinos and online poker sites in Hungary.

Online gambling, especially poker and sports betting is quite popular with Hungarian customers. A large foreign online sportsbook operator recently entered talks with the Hungarian government to lift the monopoly. Many international and domestic casino developers are expected to bid on delivering the casino platform in order to be the company with the easiest access to the Hungarian gambling market.

Hungary is ending the gambling monopoly in order to comply with the EU common policy. Naturally, issues including licensing and tax rates are among the most important. Recent survey indicated that online sportsbooks went out of business or left the French market due to the excessive taxes and outrageous restrictions placed upon them.​