partypoker Enters Czech Republic Online Poker Market via King's Casino
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partypoker has made the cut in the Czech Republic, becoming the second international operator to obtain a gambling license in the country, Poker Industry PRO ($) reported Thursday. The GVC Holdings gambling site is only the second licensed online poker room in the Czech Republic, joining previously lone PokerStars in the market.
While PokerStars used existing subsidiary TSG Interactive plc in Malta for their license application, which was granted on Jan. 28, 2017, partypoker obtained theirs through the local brick-and-mortar King’s Casino in Rozvadov.
Now listed as the operator for online services on partypoker.cz, King’s Casino has long been a partner of partypoker, previously hosting MILLIONS Germany and Grand Prix events. King’s will also play host to WPT Germany in August next year as part of partypoker’s recently announced 2019 partnership with WPT.
Background: Gambling Industry in the Czech Republic
Gambling regulation in the Czech Republic dates back to the 1990s with the Lotteries Act, but wasn’t strictly regulated until much later. Online betting became legal in the country in 2009 but allowed only domestic operators to partake and apparently did not put systematic regulations in place.
That began to change in 2014 when the anti-online gambling Czech Finance Minister Andrej Babiš decided to regulate online gaming to deter residents from gambling on unregulated sites that lacked consumer protections.
According to PRO, the 2014 bill was intended to pave the way to strictly control "hardcore gaming like slots or table games." High tax rates accompanied the regulations to make the market less appealing to potential operators.
Regulations Become Law
Fast-forward to 2016 and Czech President Miloš Zeman signed the new gambling regulations into law with an effective date of January 1, 2017. The new law regulated all forms of online and land-based gambling including casino, slot machines, sports betting, lotteries and bingo. Bet amounts and winnings in casino games were restricted to a maximum of CZK1,000 ($43.45) and CZK50,000 ($2,172.25) respectively, and other constraints were placed on poker operators.
Under the regulations, restrictions were placed on poker offerings including freerolls, bonus offers, free bets, and use of jackpot elements like those found in Spin & Go’s. In addition, tournaments can't be raked less than five percent and prize pool guarantees cannot be offered until at least 50% of the guarantee is collected. Operators can now offer variations like satellites, zoom, shootouts, and knockouts, but those too were previously prohibited.
PokerStars Dives in, partypoker Follows
Following the revamped regulations, PokerStars re-launched operations in the Czech Republic in February 2017. Though partypoker also applied for a license last year, the operator later revoked their application on grounds of incongruence with EU law, stating at that time:
“We fully support the development of a regulated and well-functioning online gaming market in the Czech Republic and we hope that the authorities will consider the issues raised and will cooperate with the operator on the successful attainment of this objective.”
It can be assumed that the deterrents that kept GVC from pursuing a license before, have been resolved as they join the Czech online gaming market through the local land-based operator King’s Casino. With the license granted on Nov. 10, the partypoker.cz domain is expected to be up and running in the near future.
The Stars Group owns a majority shareholding in iBus Media.
