Although the licensing system of online sports betting has been in force from 1 January 2023 (with payment bocking rules in force from 1 July 2023), the envisaged enforcement activity of the Supervisory Authority for Regulatory Affairs (SARA) had not taken place until the beginning of August 2023.
According to the new payment blocking rules, in case the Supervisory Authority of Regulatory Affairs (SARA) have established that an operator provided “prohibited gambling” (i.e. not licensed by the SARA) towards Hungarian players, it shall also issue a decision ordering the restriction of the payment account used for the payment of bets or winnings by the given gambling operator.
The Hungarian gambling authority’s (SARA) Implementation Decree have been published on 19 December 2022 with the already known amendments to the Gambling Act, and with the start of the new year the forms through which EEA companies may submit their applications for online sports betting licenses have appeared on the SARA’s website.
After the vote of the Hungarian Parliament that adopted the relevant amendtments to the Hungarian Gambling Act and Concessions Act on 19 July 2022, the amending act (Act XIX of 2022 amending certain Acts regarding economic regulatory matters) is now officially published in the Hungarian Gazette.
Next week the Parliament is to vote on the liberalization of online sport betting and on new sanctions on PSP’s servicing unlicensed operators.
Since the draft amendments to the Hungarian online sports betting regime have not been challenged in the respective TRIS procedures, Hungary is free to adopt the proposals that would enter into force on 1 January 2023. For more information, read the article.
According to its recent TRIS notifications (no. 2022/66/HU and 2022/67/HU) addressed to the European Commission, the Hungarian legislator have decided to open the Hungarian online sports betting market to private operators in the near future.
The next couple of months will be pivotal for the years to come in the Hungarian online gambling market because the HGA might put an end to the de facto cease-fire that has been in place ever since 2018 with the international online gambling operators.
Gambling is a regulatory area where Member States, due to their moral and cultural differences, enjoy a wide margin of discretion when choosing their objectives and thus market structure, however such freedom is not without boundaries: restrictive measures, such as state monopolies, must nevertheless satisfy the requirements best summarised by the landmark decision of Gebhard.
A magyar távszerencsejáték koncessziós és engedélyezési rendszer 2013-as és 2014-es újraszabályozásai nyomán tömegesen indultak azzal kapcsolatos közigazgatási perek. Jelen tanulmány célja a perekben szerzett gyakorlati tapasztalatok és bizonyos konzekvenciáinak – szükségszerűen szubjektív – bemutatása.
Február 28-án várható, hogy az Európai Bíróság ítéletet hoz a Sporting Odds Limited online szerencsejáték szolgáltató ügyében kezdeményezett előzetes döntéshozatali eljárásban. Az ítélet előzményeit Nemescsói András és Radics Viktor, a DLA Piper szakértői tekintik át.
* Önálló ügyvéd, együttműködésben a DLA Piper Posztl, Nemescsói, Györfi-Tóth és Társai Ügyvédi Irodával.
** Független tanácsadó, együttműködésben a DLA Piper Posztl, Nemescsói, Györfi-Tóth és Társai Ügyvédi Irodával.
