2019 Report: 43.3% of Czech Teenagers Aged 15+ Gamble

Latest report by the Czech Ministry of finance reveals that 43.3% of teenagers aged 15 and older gambled in 2019. This marks an increase when comparing year-on-year results.

Report Outlining Gambling Activities for 2019 in the Czech Republic Was Released

The Czech Ministry of Finance has released its annual report outlining the country’s gambling activities in 2019. According to the report, some 43.3% of Czech teenagers aged 15 or older gambled in 2019.

This is another increase compared to 2018 when the number of teenagers who gambled was 39.8%. Estimated 41.4% individuals aged 15 or older did so at land-based casinos. The number is higher still than the results in 2018 when estimated 38.4% teenagers visited and gambled at land-based properties in the Czech Republic.

Meanwhile, an estimated 11.9% of the teenagers placed a bet online. This constitutes another increase compared to 2018, when only 9.1% of the teenagers placed an online bet. Among the teenagers, aged 15 or older, lotteries were the most popular way to gamble. Some 38.6% of the teenagers bought tickets or scratch cards from a land-based lottery. But some 4.9% of the teenagers choose online lotteries. In 2019, some 9.8% of the teenagers also participated in retail betting. Moreover, 7.6% of the teenagers participated in pre-match online betting and another 5.7% chose to bet on a live game.

The Country’s Gambling Taxes

The Czech Republic’s gambling taxes were updated recently. Starting from January this year, the government introduced three different levels for gambling tax. According to the government, different taxes were implemented depending on the type of gambling activity and the harms it brings:

• gambling tax was set at 23% of the gross gaming revenue (GGR), but gaming machines pay 35% GGR tax
• bingos, lotteries and live games pay 30% GGR tax
• betting on fixed odds is taxed 25% of GGR

According to the Ministry of Finance in the Czech Republic, with the increased taxes for gambling activities, part of the extra funds will be used to help problem gambling programs. Furthermore, the country plans to implement an exclusion scheme which will enable people to be excluded from gambling activities. Self-exclusion will be an option as well as enforced exclusion. The scheme is expected to be launched later this year.

The Czech Republic’s Gambling Revenue

Another report, released earlier this month by the Czech Ministry of Finance, outlined gambling revenue for the country’s operators in 2019. According to the report, gambling tax revenue in the Czech Republic surpassed CZK10 billion (£345.1 million/€378.8 million/$437.4 million). This marked a 4.1% increase when comparing year-on-year results. On the other hand, the gaming industry in the Czech Republic raised CZK36.27 billion in revenue for 2019. Year-on-year result comparison this marks a 15.8% increase.

Out of the CZK36.27 billion in revenue raised by the gaming industry, CZK24.50 billion was raised by the land-based casinos alone. On the other hand, the remaining CZK11.77 billion was raised by online gambling activities.

Further breakdown of those two numbers was provided by the report. Out of the land-based operations, CZK15.11 billion was raised by gaming machines, while land-based lotteries raised some CZK6.21 billion. Land-based table games and retail betting raised CZK2.06 billion and CZK1.10 billion respectively. Last but not least, the tote board and the bingo raised together some CZK10 million in revenue.

In terms of online gambling activities, some CZK7.73 billion was raised by online betting. In addition, online slot games raised CZK2.83 billion in revenue while online lottery games raised CZK988 million. This leaves the online table games with CZK223 million in raised revenue.