Austria's online gambling bill: EU standstill ends 5 Nov

Austria is preparing to end its single-licence model for online gambling, and the next fixed date is 5 November 2026. That is when the three-month EU standstill on the government's bill runs out. Until then the law cannot be adopted. After it, the bill still has to pass Austria's parliament, where it is waiting for the Finance Committee to take it up.

What the deadline is

Austria notified the European Commission of the Federal Act amending the Gambling Act and the Telecommunications Act 2021 on 4 August 2026, under the EU's procedure for draft technical rules (notification 2026/0415/AT). The Commission's record lists 5 November 2026 as the end of the standstill. During that window the Commission and other member states can comment on the draft.

The Finance Ministry has said the law can only be adopted after the standstill ends, but parliament can keep working on it in the meantime. The government bill (594 d.B.) reached the Nationalrat on 5 August and was assigned to the Finance Committee on 14 September. The parliament's page lists the committee's deliberations as still to begin.

What the bill would change

Today, online casino games in Austria are legally offered under one concession, held by Österreichische Lotterien through its win2day brand. The bill replaces that with an open procedure in which an unlimited number of online concessions can be granted.

The timetable in the bill as tabled:

• 1 January 2027: new online concessions can be granted from this date.
• 1 October 2027: the new concessions take effect.
• 31 December 2028: the existing concession is extended until this date at the latest. Its online part ends earlier if the holder receives one of the new online concessions.

Those dates are in the government's text. Parliament can still change them.

A condition for sites already serving Austria

The bill sets a condition aimed at operators that have offered gambling to Austrians without an Austrian licence. To apply, they must have stopped that offer from 1 January 2027 until they receive a concession. An operator that stops after 31 December 2026 is barred from an online concession for 18 months from the day it stops, or 24 months if it stops after 31 December 2029.

Applicants must also have paid outstanding gambling taxes and satisfied final Austrian court judgments that players won against them. The Finance Ministry says this brings justice for around 20,000 affected players in Austria. The bill extends these conditions to companies in the same group and to the owner of the brand used.

In plain terms: if the bill passes in this form, an offshore operator that wants an Austrian licence has a reason to stop serving Austria by 31 December 2026. One that stops later is barred from an online concession for at least 18 months from the day it stops, while new concessions can be granted from 1 January 2027.

Player protection: deposit caps and a central exclusion register

For players, the more concrete changes are the protection rules. Under the government's text:

• Deposit caps for online play: at most €250 a week for players under 26, and at most €1,680 a month from age 26. For players aged 23 and over, a different amount can be set if extra safeguards apply, such as monitoring of play and feedback tools.
• One cap across operators: a digital supervision system would apply a central deposit limit across all licensed online operators, rather than a separate limit at each site.
• Your own limits: players set daily, weekly and monthly money and time limits. Lowering a limit applies at once; raising one applies only after 72 hours.
• A central exclusion register: self-exclusions and operator-imposed exclusions would be recorded in one register covering casinos, gaming machines and online gambling.
• Gaming machines: lower stakes and game speed, and a mandatory cool-down of at least 15 minutes after 90 minutes of uninterrupted play, during which the machine switches off.
• Land casinos: the number of casino concessions is set at 13.

To protect the licensed market, the bill adds payment blocking, a blacklist of unlicensed providers and website blocking orders, which Austria's telecoms regulator, the Telekom-Control-Kommission, would issue to internet providers at the request of the anti-fraud office (Amt für Betrugsbekämpfung).

What this means for players in Austria now

Nothing changes yet. The bill is still before parliament, and none of the dates above apply until it is adopted. If it passes as drafted, Austrian players should expect more licensed operators from late 2027, firm deposit caps at those operators, and more blocking of sites without a licence. Under-26s would face the tightest limits.

For other markets that have used blocking, see our reports on Norway's DNS block notices and the EU push for platforms to check gambling licences. For a different approach to deposit limits, read about the UK's deposit limit rules.

18+. Gambling can be addictive. If it stops being fun, see our responsible gambling page.