Austria no longer heaven for poker players?
Until shortly, Austria used to be heaven for live poker and poker players as live poker was legal and any private person was able to open a poker room also called card casino.
However, this fantastic status ended end of last year, when the business licences of the poker rooms and Concord Card Casinos were not renewed.
Why have the Austrian poker rooms been shut down?
The reason for the shut down is that the business licenses of the Austrian poker rooms expired on December 31st, 2019 and was not extended by the Austrian government, so the Austrian poker rooms closed their doors on January 31st.
Peter Zanoni, owner of the Concord Card Casinos, filed a protest against this decision plus applied for legal protection, which lead to a re-opening.
However, several raids by the Austrian financial police followed with the consequence that all poker rooms in the country were shut down yesterday at 12 pm CET.
Sadly, this time the closing might last forever. Although Peter Zanoni has filed a lawsuit at the constitutional court, chances are slim that they will reverse the decision of the finance court.
More than 600 jobs and 13 poker rooms at risk
There are a total of 13 poker rooms in Austria with more than 600 employees, who now are at severe risk of losing their jobs.
Since yesterday, over 600 people are unemployed, which alone should be more than enough reason to reverse this decision.
Is there hope and a chance of a re-opening?
As mentioned above, the decision of the Constitutional Court is still pending. Unfortunately, it is highly unlikely that it will go against the decision of the financial court.
Nevertheless, all hope is not lost and Peter Zanoni has shown over decades that he is a real legal mastermind. He has won several trials and always found a solution. Let’s hope that he can do it again!
Another aspect that could help is that there is the citizens’ initiative “Freies Pokerspiel für Österreich” (Free Poker for Austria).
It is a very active action group, which has started a petition, that might be able to influence the decision of the constitutional court.
- Sign the Petition for Free Poker in Austria here
At VIP-Grinders.com we will keep you updated on the trial and will post an article as soon as the constitutional court has made its decision.
