As of now, almost all forms of online gambling in the Czech Republic have been established as legal. Online casinos, on the other hand, are not fully covered by online gambling laws.

Instead, they are subject to the 2012 Lottery Act, that is a revised version of the Law on Lotteries from 1990, that affects online casino gambling in the same way it does with lotteries and similar forms of gambling.

This has resulted in both licensed and unlicensed operators competing under the same laws that are way outdated. For this reason, a brand new law was introduced and started to take effect early in 2017.

According to this new law, online casinos wanting to offer their services in the country will have to provide evidence of fair business practices and financial stability with deposits between €185,000 and €1,850,000, depending on the type of games offered. Licenses are issued for the maximum duration of six years for the operators from the EU and EEA countries only.

With the law starting to take effect on January 1, 2017, many online casinos decided to move outside the Czech Republic pending the license application.

So far, only the online poker and casino giant PokerStars has successfully applied for an online casino license with the Czech Republic Gaming Board. Other than that, there are still quite a few online casinos accepting players from the Czech republic, although the number of available options has declined quite significantly.

Thanks to new licenses, online casino players from the Czech Republic will be able to play in a safe environment of highly regulated, locally licensed online casinos.

In the meantime, if you choose to play with an international casino that still caters to Czech Republic players, look for those licensed by reputable European or global regulators and those that have their games regularly audited by independent third parties such as eCogra.