Czech Gambling Market Sees a Slot Revenue Decline in 2018

The Czech Republic issued a new set of results for 2018 which actually shows that the gambling revenue in this country fell 21.3% last year.

It dropped to CZK31.3 billion, while the decline can be attributed to a significant fall in revenue coming from slot games.

More Details on Slot Revenue

The consumer from the Czech Republic collectively managed to wager CZK 249.4 billion…

…and that number includes the amount wagered across all gambling products and channels.

The numbers show an 11.3% increase compared to the numbers from 2017. Also, consumers won a total of CZK 249.4 billion.

But, the Czech General Directorate of Finance revealed that slots struggled to make ends meet during last year.

The revenue coming from this type of gambling had a significant drop in revenue by 39.3% to CZK14.8 billion. On one hand, revenue from land-based slots increased 42.4% to CZK12.9 billion…

…while the revenue from online slots fell 4.8% to CZK1.9 billion.

New Requirements in the State

Back in August of 2017, the country’s regulatory body introduced a stricter set of regulations and controls among land-based casinos, especially regarding bonuses they can offer to customers.

Also, in March 2018, the regulator introduced stricter rules regarding the identification and registration of customers…

…where it asked each casino to the age and identity of all s.

On the other hand, the revenue from table games saw a growth of 8.0% to CZK2.3 billion, thanks to a strong land-based performance.

Online revenue skyrocketed to CZK175.1 million, which is compared to CZK119.5 million from 2017, a massive increase.

Lottery revenue also jumped 13.8% to CZK6.7 billion, thanks to a strong retail performance…

…and it is interesting that the state lottery was able for 89.9% of the total yearly revenue.

Online lottery, which has been officially legal since January 2017, had revenue growth of 78.0% to CZK670.6 million.

Revenue from Other Types of Gambling Products

Revenue from fixed-odds sports betting increased slightly by 2.0%, to CZK7.6 billion. The majority of revenue for the vertical came from the online wagers, while the land-based had a minor contribution.

Bingo had a decline in revenue to CZK7.4 million. Since the slot revenue saw a major drop…

…the government’s tax also fell 20.3% in comparison to the last year, to CZK9.7 billion, because the operators pay a 35% gross revenue tax for it.

The Taxes:

Even though the state issued a new set of rules that would make international operators ask to obtain licenses in this European state…

…high taxes and huge istrative requirements have actually repelled the operators.

But, not only that, the Czech government decided to increase taxes even more on gambling products from the month of January 2020.

The tax rate on lotteries, non-slot casino games, and bingo will rise from 23% to 30% of revenue, with fixed-odds betting tax increased to 25%.

Source:

“Slot decline hits Czech gambling market in 2018”,igamingbusiness.com, June 11, 2019.