Best Online Casinos - Austria

Gambling in Austria is legal in accordance with the Gaming Act. This piece of legal writing does not require the local ISPs to block the gambling websites targeted at the reviewed country. However, it does regulate the way that virtual gambling is portrayed in the media. To be more specific, it prohibits any advertisement or promotions of such virtual venues.

The Glücksspielgesetz (the Austrian gambling act) dates to 1989, but it was amended several times. (one of the latest changes was introduced in 2020). It enables the federal government of all nine Austrian states to issue permits for slot machines and sports betting. Licensing of online casinos and lottery is held at the national level.

The Federal Ministry of Finance is the governmental institution that monitors the industry and decides on how and to whom to distribute the licenses. In accordance with the ruling of this Austrian gambling authority, among casinos and players, the ones to pay taxes are the online operators.

While this sounds as if Austria offered plenty of options to online gamblers, in fact, there is only one government-approved online casino in the country. It is Win2Day, which is partially owned by the state. The rest are private companies that are based in Austria and apply online for the gambling license. The list of options is not diverse.

Of course, this would not have been Austria if there were no tangled legal stories, exceptions, and hidden underwater stones. While many local companies can apply for the license and offer services online and via smartphones, they can only offer access to these services to those who are physically located in the country. Therefore, you won’t see many Austria-based online operators dominating the European arena. This regulation also created many obstacles for many international brands to thrive in Austria. To do so, they have to be located in the country.

In this case, what choices do the Austrian gamblers have?

Well, there are plenty of gambling destinations that accept players from this country in accordance to two popular and secure licensed from the Malta Gaming Authority and the United Kingdom Gambling Commission. Alternatively, there are even more licensors maintained by the EU-based regulators. These are friendly to Austrian traffic, too. Our database has more than 600 online operators that welcome players from the reviewed country. Out of them, up to 300 will offer either local payment methods, convenient languages, or currencies.

How gambling started in Austria

You must be wondering why while many of Austria’s European neighbors either go full-ballistics on the gambling industry or regulate it heavily, this country maintains leniency and opts-in for regulations rather than prohibition? Well, the answers are in the history. Gambling dates to the 17th century for Austria. Farmers loved spending time playing dice. By the 1700s, the first lottery, the Lotto di Genova, entered the country. Official land-based gambling venues appeared much later, in the 1930s.

Speaking of history. Many famous Austrians have been spotted gambling, including Mozart.

When we are talking about the convenient currency, we mean Euros. This is the most popular currency across the European online gambling industry, and it is included in almost 80% of the websites, which is up to 500 online operators in our database. The second most popular option is USD.

Among some of the widely spread banking methods for Austrian online gambling, there is PayPal, Sofort, and Maestro, as well as the prepaid card Paysafecard. All these methods are legal and convenient. Except for the Paysafecard, the rest work well with both depositing and withdrawing. 

To pay in Paysafecard, take a look at Lucky 247, Videoslots, and William Hill Online among more than 400 other options. For Sofort, head to Bet365, BoyleSports, or more than 200 other websites. In order to use Maestro, select among more than 200 online lobbies, including Casoo and BetVictor. Finally, if you are used to PayPal, it is available in bet-at-home, 10Bet, Aztec Riches, and more than 80 other online cashiers.

On average, it takes up to one business day to receive wins to e-wallets, and up to three workdays to cash out to the card or other popular method.

Standing on its own and worth mentioning separately is the EPS – the payment system designed specifically to meet the needs of users from the reviewed country. It is linked to more than twenty Austrian banks, which makes it particularly safe. In our database, more than 100 brands offer EPS, including Mr. Green, Karamba, and Europa.

Playtech leads the game in the Austrian market. For this gambling segment, the UK-based company became particularly successful in promotions via iPoker. Among other influential content suppliers appreciated by the local gambling community, there is Net Entertainment, Novomatic, Rabcat, Microgaming, and SoftSwiss.

If we are talking table games, then roulette, blackjack, and poker are particularly popular in the country. However, Austria does not make it into the top-5 countries that prefer table games over slots. If we’re talking about slots, it’s all of the latest trends in Megaways, Egypt adventures, Scandinavian stories, as well as all sorts of the bonus features.