Staff Will Have To Czech Out Blackjack Players
New proposals from the nation’s Finance Ministry look set to send the gambling industry in the Czech Republic into a bit of a spin.
Imagine going into your local gambling opportunity provider, be that gambling bar or casino, and the staff politely asking for your name, checking it against a database online to make sure you’re not the recipient of any government welfare payments, then, with your status confirmed, invite you to participate in playing with their blackjack cards but remind you, again very politely, that you’re only allowed to bet a certain amount an hour, and indeed, only win or lose a certain amount an hour too, and tell you not to worry because they’ll be keeping an eye on it for you.
Casinos Face New Limits In The Czech Republic
• Proposals on new gambling laws from Finance Ministry
• No gambling near schools, hospitals or shopping areas
• CZK 2,600 billion taxes paid on gambling each year
The new proposed legislation in the Czech Republic provides for exactly that scenario with both online and “real life” gamblers needing to register in order to play, and their maximum bet, win or loss limited depending on where they’re enjoying themselves. In a gambling bar, popular in the Czech Republic, one could bet CZK 20 an hour and lose just CZK 10,000, whist at a casino that is upped to a maximum hourly wager rate of CZK 100 and a win/loss maximum of up to CZK 50,000. Which places a lot of responsibility on the shoulders of staff in these venues.
Of course under the legislation there will be few of these venues in the first place with a limit being introduced based on the size of local population. There would be but one gambling bar per 1,000 inhabitants, to be exact, with only towns of over 40,000 people allowed to have a casino at all. The implications of this are huge with Prague, for instance, currently having over 1,000 gambling bars and this new draft legislation from the country’s Finance Ministry only providing for a maximum of half that number.
Gambling is big business in the Czech Republic with the industry as a whole contributing CZK 2,600 billion last year alone, however the number of people with problem or issue-heavy gambling has been growing, now standing at some 140,000 across the country, and these new proposed measures are just some of the smart strategies authorities wish to employ to, as they see it, minimize the social impact of gambling on the wider population. It remains to be seen if such sweeping, and rather draconian, laws can achieve the aims it so evidently sets out.
