Austria sends its iGaming liberalization draft to the European Commission

Austria’s finance ministry has submitted a draft to the European Commission that would open the iGaming market and move away from the country’s traditional monopoly model. If the text clears the process, it could take effect in as little as 3 months — the kind of timeline that matters to PSPs, acquirers, and operators planning licensing, risk checks, and market entry.

1. The draft is now with the European Commission for review. According to the document, Austria is looking to liberalize iGaming rather than keep the existing monopoly structure.
2. The proposed rules include a single self-exclusion system, differentiated deposit limits, betting volume limits, and restrictions on the speed of online games. For payment teams, that points to tighter player monitoring and more control points around spend behavior.
3. Operators would also be required to track and prevent risky gambling behavior by customers. In practice, that shifts part of the compliance burden into the operating model, not just the licensing file.
4. The draft says companies will need to resolve outstanding disputes with players before obtaining licenses. The current figure cited is up to 20,000 players with unresolved disputes with operators in Austria.

For high-risk providers, the useful detail here is not the politics of market opening. It is the operational shape of the new regime: mandatory self-exclusion, spend controls, behavioral monitoring, and a disputes clean-up before licensing. That is the sort of package that changes how an operator is onboarded, how transactions are monitored, and how quickly a PSP can safely support the market.