Austria to liberalise online gambling with uncapped, rolling licences

Austria will move from a single-license model to an uncapped, rolling licensing system for online gambling if Parliament approves final amendments in December 2026. The draft Gambling Act was submitted to the European Union on 4 August 2026 for a three-month Technical Regulation Information System (TRIS) review and has already been tabled in the National Council; the government expects a vote on final text in December 2026. The draft imposes a deadline of 31 December 2026 after which operators offering unlicensed online gambling face an 18-month suspension before they can obtain a licence.

How the Austria online gambling liberalisation will change market structure

The current Austrian framework ties the right to offer online gambling to a single lottery licence held by Österreichische Lotterien GmbH. The draft Bill dismantles that exclusivity by allowing an unlimited number of operators to apply for and receive licences on a rolling basis. Lotteries will remain under a single licence, which the Bill extends to 31 December 2028. Six of Austria's twelve existing land‑based casino licences will also have their expiry shifted to 31 December 2028, rather than ending in 2027 as originally scheduled.

The Bill makes the licensing regime permissive rather than restrictive. Prospective entrants should note that the Government has framed the change as liberalisation but has attached detailed compliance and sanction provisions to limit unregulated activity.

Licensing requirements under Austria online gambling liberalisation

Applicants for an online gambling licence will be required to meet specific corporate and financial tests. The draft Bill lists capital requirements, reliability and suitability checks, and procedural compliance as prerequisites. Operators that have been active in Austria without a licence must cease operations by 31 December 2026 and must clear any outstanding Austrian judgments and unpaid taxes before they will be eligible to receive a licence. Failure to stop trading exposes an operator to the statutory 18‑month cooling-off period that delays licence entitlement.

Capital and fit‑and‑proper checks are emphasised as core thresholds. The draft does not publish the precise quantitative capital requirement in the text presented to the EU; the Bill indicates that detailed thresholds and application processes will be set out in implementing regulations and licensing procedures to follow.

Player protection and technical enforcement measures

The Bill introduces a package of player protection measures that operators must implement. These include age limits, stake limits, mandatory self‑limitation tools, cooldown periods and a cross‑operator exclusion register. Enforcement mechanisms proposed in the draft include payment blocking, IP blocking, supervised test plays and public warnings against operators who breach provisions.

The cross‑operator exclusion register is designed to operate across all licence holders and to be available to operators obliged by the licence to check and enforce exclusions. Self‑limitation and cooldown obligations create specific operational responsibilities that will need to be reflected in customer journeys and compliance systems.

Regulatory architecture and interim supervision

The draft Bill repeatedly references the establishment of a new Gambling Supervisory Authority. The government has deferred the creation of that new body, leaving details to subsequent legislation. Until a bespoke authority is established, the draft designates the Austrian Tax Office as the interim Supervisory Authority with oversight powers under the new regime.

Planned rules on advertising, the formal remit of the future supervisory authority and licensing conditions for land‑based casinos are not published in final form. Austria's Federal Ministry of Finance remains responsible for drafting the outstanding secondary rules that will determine how permissive the market becomes in practice.

Timeline and procedural risk: TRIS review and the December deadline

The Bill entered the EU TRIS process on 4 August 2026, triggering a three‑month standstill that runs into early November 2026. Member States may comment during the TRIS period and can request extensions; Malta has been signalled in industry commentary as a jurisdiction that may show interest in the notification. The Government has already placed the draft before the National Council and anticipates final amendments and a vote in December 2026.

Operators planning market entry should treat 31 December 2026 as the operational cut‑off: any operator that continues to provide unlicensed services in Austria beyond that date will be subject to the statutory 18‑month suspension before licence eligibility. That provision creates a material compliance cliff for providers who are active now without an Austrian licence.

Practical implications for operators and advisers

Operators that intend to apply after liberalisation must prepare for a multi‑layered compliance programme. Key preparatory tasks include:

• confirming capital structures and preparing documentation for reliability and suitability checks;

• auditing historic Austrian activity and resolving outstanding judgments and tax liabilities; and

• designing customer‑facing controls for age verification, stake limits, self‑exclusion and cooldown functionality.

Platform vendors, payments providers and compliance teams will need to align technical flows for exclusion‑list checks and for the enforcement tools the draft contemplates, including mechanisms to support payment and IP blocking where directed by the supervisory authority. For commercial teams, advertising rules—still to be defined—will be an important determinant of go‑to‑market strategy.

Operators should monitor the TRIS outcome in November and the National Council process through December 2026. The draft's core dates and the 18‑month suspension make early legal and tax due diligence essential for firms currently active in Austria without a licence.

Regulatory teams and compliance vendors looking to advise clients on entry should start modelling the capital and operational costs now so that applications can be submitted on day one of the new regime if required. The substantive details that remain in subordinate legislation will determine how accessible the market is in practice.