Gambling Industry Overview in Slovenia
The following approaches will be presented
- Gambling legislation in Slovenia
- Gambling authorities in Slovenia
- Online casinos in Slovenia
- and more
Gambling in Slovenia has gone a long way. Currently, gambling is legal inside the country's casinos. In addition, sports betting has also been legalized and is now allowed if using a sports book situated in local casinos. The national lottery is also in operation up to date
Overview
All forms of gambling were illegal on the territory of Slovenia until 1989. The country's independence from Yugoslavia helped it start developing its gambling industry. The latter, however, remained unregulated until the implementation of the country's Gambling Act in 1995.
It was the Gambling Act, which actually made casinos and slot halls located over the country legal.
Since the implementation of Slovenia's Gambling Act, gaming and gambling operations in the country have become attractive not only to local players, but also to foreign citizens. That is exactly the reason why gambling has refocused mostly upon the tourism industry, offering a great number of casinos, which are especially made in order to attract outlanders, and more specifically, Italians.
Currently, the gambling industry in Slovenia is regarded as an important industry by the local Government, as it generates almost 25% of the country's overall tourism income.
Up to date, there are more than a dozen gambling facilities situated across Slovenia.
Relevant Legislation and Legal Framework
As mentioned above, gambling in Slovenia has been legal since 1989, when the country got its independence from Yugoslavia. For the first couple of years, the gambling market in the country was fully unregulated. This is exactly the reason why the country's Government has put seeking control over gambling as one of its first priorities. The Government has been also focused on the matters of taxation related to gambling operations in the country.
The process of implementing an appropriate legislation took more than half a decade. In 1995, the Government came up with the country's first Gambling Act, which was focused on licensing and overall regulation of all gambling operations on the territory of Slovenia.
Top Rated Online Casinos for Slovenia
In order to make a successful correlation between past and future, the country's Government has been planning certain changes in the gambling legislation of Slovenia. Planned future legislative and regulatory changes, however, did not happened as soon as planned.
As mentioned earlier, gambling here has turned into a favorite pastime for the country's residents. A great number of the land-based casinos in the country are primarily focused on attracting foreign casino players, as the generated gambling revenue accounts for almost a quarter of the overall tourist revenue of the country. All of this proves the importance of gambling industry to the country's economy.
Currently, 13 casinos operate in a total of 11 different cities in Slovenia, which is considered a very large number considering the size and population of the country.
In 2013, both land-based and online gambling in the country were planned to undergo certain changes, including being regulated under a new Gaming Act. The latter is overseen by a special regulatory authority, which on its turn reports to the Ministry of Finance.
After Slovenia became part of the European Union, it was required to take some mandatory steps in order to notify the European Commission of its intentions to change the gambling legislation concerning both land-based and web-based casinos.
The Gaming Act of 2013 states that the national lottery is retained as it is. However, when it comes to five-year gambling licenses, they were planned to be made available for suitable applicants. The new Gaming Act also contains a range of penalties pointed at gaming operators that are not licensed. These punitive measures include not only heavy fines, but also some restrictions on certain financial transactions with websites that are out of law, as well as blocking the Internet Service Provider (ISP).
The country's new Gaming Act is also focused on legalizing online gambling. According to the provisions of the new law, the website providers will be required to apply for a license before operating on the territory of Slovenia. Websites that are not granted a license, risk to be heavily fined by the regulator and then ISP-banned in the country.
The new Gaming Act of Slovenia also states that the country's Government is to keep the ownership of the national lottery, which is planned to be held as a competition of the privately-owned off- and online gaming establishments. The casino, gaming and betting websites' licenses will be issued for a limited duration only.
Online Gambling
Nowadays there are many local players who enjoy using the services of casino websites as a pastime. Online poker is not so popular in the country as it is in some other European countries, but there are still a lot of players who are attracted by it.
Before the implementation of the new Gaming Law of 2013, online gambling in Slovenia was not neither legal, nor illegal. In other words, the statute of web-based gaming operations was not practically set, because it was not set by any law provisions, but the local Government was refusing to grant any licenses to Slovenia-based online gambling websites.
The Government of the country has been long considering the idea of regulating its online gambling market, but legal and regulatory changes have not been happening rapidly. As mentioned above, the original plan was to finally regulate the web-based casino and gaming operations in early 2014.
Certain restrictions were imposed on outlandish online casinos in 2006, as the country's Government blocked several websites. Up to date, a number of foreign casino and gambling websites are still available for Slovenian players. There are half a dozen websites that provide Slovenian language services on their platforms, and about a hundred more who are available to local players in other languages.
The past efforts of the country to block foreign gambling websites as several other countries had already done, were basically fruitless, because blocked websites can come up with a different domain or even a few more. Preventing local players from betting on foreign casino websites is practically impossible, because both the Government and regulatory authorities can do very little about that.