Following a ruling by Czechia’s Constitutional Court, the 57 individual districts of Prague will continue having independence in gambling regulation. Despite some opposition, officials of the city council have lauded the move.
The Czech Republic’s Constitutional Court has confirmed that Prague’s City Council has the right to create and enforce gambling laws for the unique needs of each district in the city. This means the Magistrá (the council) can limit or even completely ban live gambling activities in different parts of Prague if it sees fit.
This approach is quite different from that of the national government. The Czech government prefers a centralized system for gambling control. However, the new ruling goes for local decision-making in this area. Prague can now establish gambling laws that match its own needs.
Prague took a bold step to reshape its gambling scene in 2021, passing a city-wide law that wiped out all technical games, most notably slot machines. This move aimed at reducing the negative impacts of gambling but allowed live dealer games like poker and roulette to continue within licensed casinos.
This decision was even more unique because Prague didn’t take a one-size-fits-all approach. Instead, the city handed power to its 57 individual districts. Each one of them could decide how to handle live gambling. However, the responses were far from uniform. 41 districts went all in with a complete ban, while others chose to limit the operating hours of gambling venues.
Prague’s gambling rules came under fire from national authorities in 2023. The Ministry of the Interior and the Competition Authority claimed that the city’s regulations were unfair to gambling license holders. They said the rules shouldn’t be used and requested the City Council to scrap them altogether.
The Ministry temporarily suspended the city’s gambling ordinance, saying the rules broke national standards. According to the Ministry, different gambling laws in each district created confusion and market imbalance. The Office for the Protection of Competition (ÚOHS) also raised concerns and launched a formal investigation.
The Constitutional Court has now ended the suspension of the city’s rules. It also supported the right of local lawmakers to set their regulations. Justice Pavel Šámal explained that the Court sees the districts’ decisions as fair and sensible.
The Court found that the restrictions followed the proper rules to reach their goals. It also agreed that the reasons given by the City of Prague for treating different gambling operators differently were fair and did not break any laws.
However, not everyone agreed with the Court’s decision. Justice Milan Hulmak shared his concerns in a written statement, where he questioned the reasons behind the ruling. He said he couldn’t see any logical reasons for such significant differences in rules between various parts of the city.
Czechia’s Competition Authority has warned that the gambling industry could face legal troubles because of the current situation. Gambling companies may struggle to follow the different rules in different areas. The Authority also mentioned that some operators are now rethinking where they do business and how they run their operations.
Despite the disagreements, the Prague City Council said that using the same rules for all areas would ignore the unique situations of each neighborhood. They pointed out that some districts needed stricter rules because they had serious problems with gambling addiction and related crime.
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