On 15 October 2016, the Austrian Constitutional Court held that
the Austrian gambling monopoly does not infringe upon the freedom
to provide services under art. 56 of the TFEU. Therefore, it did
not repeal the gambling monopoly for violating the principle of
equal treatment.
The Austrian Constitutional Court (Verfassungsgerichtshof
[VfGH]) in two recent cases (VfGH 15 October 2016, G 103/2016; 15
October 2016, E 945/2016) was asked to examine the question whether
the Austrian gambling monopoly infringes upon EU law and/or
constitutional law.
Initially, the Austrian Supreme Court (Oberster Gerichtshof
[OGH]) had brought one of the cases to the Constitutional Court by
making an application for repeal of sec. 3 of the Gaming Act
(Glücksspielgesetz), which lays down the gambling monopoly,
and other provisions of the Gaming Act, as well as in eventu for
repeal of the Gaming Act in its entirety, on grounds of
unconstitutionality (OGH 30 March 2016, 4 Ob 31/16m,
