{"id":3554,"date":"2022-06-30T15:51:18","date_gmt":"2022-06-30T13:51:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bcch.com\/?p=3554"},"modified":"2022-06-30T15:52:19","modified_gmt":"2022-06-30T13:52:19","slug":"liberalisation-on-the-hungarian-betting-market-szecskay-attorneys-at-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bcch.com\/?p=3554","title":{"rendered":"Liberalisation of the Hungarian betting market &#8211; Szecskay Attorneys at Law"},"content":{"rendered":"\n[et_pb_section fb_built=&#8221;1&#8243; theme_builder_area=&#8221;post_content&#8221; _builder_version=&#8221;4.17.4&#8243; _module_preset=&#8221;default&#8221;][et_pb_row _builder_version=&#8221;4.17.4&#8243; _module_preset=&#8221;default&#8221; theme_builder_area=&#8221;post_content&#8221;][et_pb_column _builder_version=&#8221;4.17.4&#8243; _module_preset=&#8221;default&#8221; type=&#8221;4_4&#8243; theme_builder_area=&#8221;post_content&#8221;][et_pb_text _builder_version=&#8221;4.17.4&#8243; _module_preset=&#8221;default&#8221; theme_builder_area=&#8221;post_content&#8221; hover_enabled=&#8221;0&#8243; sticky_enabled=&#8221;0&#8243;]<p><strong><u>Are you feeling lucky? Hungary set to liberalise the online sports betting market<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Hungarians fancying a flutter on their local football team winning the next game can only (legally) indulge in doing so through a state-owned monopolist. This is about to change, however, as Hungary is set to liberalise its online sports betting market providing opportunity for EU gaming operators.<\/p>\n<p>Forced by EU Court judgments, the Hungarian government has taken the decision to liberalise the Hungarian online sports betting market by introducing a legislative package which would amend certain Acts already in force regarding the organisation of remote gambling\u00a0and other related instruments dealing with the licensing, operation and control of certain games of chance.<\/p>\n<p>The legislation is presently scheduled to enter into force on January 1, 2023.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><u>CJEU\u2019s Unibet and Sporting Odds judgments \u2013 the Hungarian legislator responds<\/u><\/p>\n<p>The draft bill aims to liberalise remote gambling in Hungary in light of the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union on gambling, in particular to comply with the judgements of the Court of Justice of the European Union in the Unibet case and the Sporting Odds case, which specifically addressed shortcomings in Hungarian online gambling regulation.<\/p>\n<p>Specifically, in Sporting Odds the Court of Justice ruled that the Hungarian online gambling legislation infringed the freedom to provide services because it reserved the licenses for online gambling to offline operators holding a concession for a casino situated in Hungary. Meanwhile, in Unibet the Court of Justice held that the Hungarian legislation on granting concessions for traditional casinos was contrary to the freedom to provide services.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><u>Place your bets please \u2013 all EEA operators welcome, subject to conditions<\/u><\/p>\n<p>The significant effect of the bill becoming law is that it means private operators established in the European Economic Area will soon be able to organise remote gambling on the basis of a licence issued by the Hungarian Gambling Supervisory Authority (\u201cGSA\u201d), ending the current monopoly of Szerencsej\u00e1t\u00e9k Zrt., the public gaming operator.<\/p>\n<p>Prospective operators wishing to enter the newly opened market must adhere to, including the following:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>they must have at least 5 years\u2019 experience of running remote sports betting or online casino games in any EEA state;<\/li>\n<li>they must meet the minimum share capital requirements of HUF 1 billion (approx. EUR 2.6 million);<\/li>\n<li>they must provide a minimum collateral amount of HUF 250 million (approx. EUR 650,000); and<\/li>\n<li>they must pay a \u201cremote gambling organising fee\u201d (e.g., a licence fee) to the GSA of HUF 600 million (approx. EUR 1.6 million) for the entire duration of the licence, which may be a maximum of 7 years\u2019 long, as determined by the GSA\u2019s discretion.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>As shown above, the bill delegates to the President of the GSA the authority to issue regulations determining the maximum duration of the licence and the minimum amount of collateral to be provided by the remote gambling operator \u2013 considerable power.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><u>Gamble responsibly<\/u><\/p>\n<p>A liberalised online betting market means more private companies which, in turn, can mean higher risk of encouraging excessive gambling. \u00a0This is why the draft also aims to emphasise player protection aspects and introduce guarantee regulatory elements which protect the interests of players.<\/p>\n<p>For example, it introduces an action plan for player protection, which must be submitted by prospective operators and, in an unusual move, the ultimate beneficial owner of the prospective operator must attend the Hungarian regulator\u2019s offices annually in person to report about the operator\u2019s achievements in the field of responsible gambling during the foregoing year.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><u>The devil\u2019s in the detail \u2013 good to know<\/u><\/p>\n<p>The draft bill excludes those operators who have carried out unlicensed gambling in an EEA state in the ten years prior to applying for a licence under the bill. Additionally, any operator that provides unlicensed gambling services will lose its licence to provide its services in Hungary.<\/p>\n<p>Furthermore, a remote gambling operator may only accept bet deposits by transfer from the player&#8217;s payment account held with an authorised payment service provider, by online payment by credit card using the payment card linked to such account or, if the GSA allows it in the approved game plan, at its point of sale or betting office. At the same time, a company established for the purpose of organising gambling activities may only have a payment account if it confirms it has been authorised to organise gambling with a licence issued by the GSA.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, the prospective legislation does not alter the regulation of online casino games \u2013 the status quo remains that only holders of land-based casino licences may offer online casino games.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/szecskay.hu\/en\" style=\"color: #000080; text-decoration: underline;\">Find more up to date legal news and thoughtpieces on Szecskay&#8217;s webiste here.<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/h2>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Szerencsej\u00e1t\u00e9k Zrt. will soon see its time in a monopoly position coming to an end.<\/p>\n<p>Forced by EU Court judgments, the Hungarian government has taken the decision to liberalise remote gambling. Matthew has summarized the conditions and the good-to-know details that private operators from the European Economic Area have to watch out for when entering the Hungarian online gambling market, and we\u2019re quite certain that the big UK betting companies have European subsidiaries which qualify them for this move.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3556,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bcch-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Liberalisation of the Hungarian betting market - Szecskay Attorneys at Law - BCCH<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bcch.com\/?p=3554\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Liberalisation of the Hungarian betting market - Szecskay Attorneys at Law - BCCH\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Szerencsej\u00e1t\u00e9k Zrt. will soon see its time in a monopoly position coming to an end. Forced by EU Court judgments, the Hungarian government has taken the decision to liberalise remote gambling. Matthew has summarized the conditions and the good-to-know details that private operators from the European Economic Area have to watch out for when entering the Hungarian online gambling market, and we\u2019re quite certain that the big UK betting companies have European subsidiaries which qualify them for this move.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/bcch.com\/?p=3554\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"BCCH\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-06-30T13:51:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-06-30T13:52:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/bcch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/SZECSKAYl.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1087\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sch\u00e4ffer G\u00e1bor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sch\u00e4ffer G\u00e1bor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bcch.com\/?p=3554\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/bcch.com\/?p=3554\",\"name\":\"Liberalisation of the Hungarian betting market - Szecskay Attorneys at Law - BCCH\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bcch.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bcch.com\/?p=3554#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bcch.com\/?p=3554#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/bcch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/SZECSKAYl.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-06-30T13:51:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-06-30T13:52:19+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bcch.com\/#\/schema\/person\/996696d08a3bddd94deb2e731bac037e\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bcch.com\/?p=3554#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/bcch.com\/?p=3554\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bcch.com\/?p=3554#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/bcch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/SZECSKAYl.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/bcch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/SZECSKAYl.png\",\"width\":1087,\"height\":600},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bcch.com\/?p=3554#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/bcch.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Liberalisation of the Hungarian betting market &#8211; Szecskay Attorneys at Law\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bcch.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/bcch.com\/\",\"name\":\"BCCH\",\"description\":\"British Chamber of Commerce in Hungary\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/bcch.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bcch.com\/#\/schema\/person\/996696d08a3bddd94deb2e731bac037e\",\"name\":\"Sch\u00e4ffer G\u00e1bor\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/bcch.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/119abfaf650d41ae1efdc0f566f8bf02?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/119abfaf650d41ae1efdc0f566f8bf02?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Sch\u00e4ffer G\u00e1bor\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/bcch.com\/?author=2\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Liberalisation of the Hungarian betting market - Szecskay Attorneys at Law - BCCH","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/bcch.com\/?p=3554","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Liberalisation of the Hungarian betting market - Szecskay Attorneys at Law - BCCH","og_description":"Szerencsej\u00e1t\u00e9k Zrt. will soon see its time in a monopoly position coming to an end. 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