Hungary gambling monopoly goes online

Hugarian State Gambling Monopoly, Szerencsejáték Zrt, has announced plans for expanding its services for the Internet.  The monopoly is, of course (!), the biggest provider of gambling services in Hungary and has sole rights to supply number draw games, sports bets and prize draw tickets throughout the country and also has interests in four Hungarian casinos.

Szerencsejáték Zrt CEO , Gábor Székely, has announced this week the bid for IT equipement for the necessary expansion in the Internet, but the whole process could take at least 18 months, due to the neccesary legal  procedures.

Apparantly not all the games could be played by every EU citizens and some games, including lotteries, can not be played by foreign residents, as they have no registered address or bank account in Hungary.

This move might come in conjunction withe the 2006 request of the European Commission that Hungary open up its sportsbetting market to other EU member states in order to fulfil the EU’s key objective of free movement of goods and services.