Hungarian Poker Players Protest Against Laws

Hungary is full of passionate people that have as much love for gambling as any other country in the Eastern European area. Hungary has been dealing with the economic slowdown as well as this strong nation can, with measures put in place to help their recovery.

Recent developments in Hungary's gambling laws have however created a certain amount of confusion with regard to the local poker industry. New legislation seems to be focused on limiting poker activity to only casinos. The new amendments have suggested limits to the locations where players can play poker and limits the number of tables in poker clubs to only10. The small profit that can be made when all of the rules are followed will then be taxed at up to 25% making it relatively unprofitable to run a poker room.

Gergely Tatar, who is senior representative of the Hungarian Poker Association, said, the current government is using this law to put poker rooms out of business and drive all gambling traffic into casinos. Poker being by far the most popular form of gambling in Hungary where tens of thousands of people are active poker players. Protests are mounting as the public demonstrates against current policy as was seen recently in one of the main city metro stops.
There are no true Hungarian online casinos as the country does not allow online gambling. They have even taken measures to prevent players from using foreign casinos online. Since June of 2006, Hungarian banks have not been allowed to process payments to and from internet gambling sites.

The gambling monopoly in Hungary, state run Szerencsejáték has exclusive rights to all lottery and sports gambling, and has a major interest in most Hungarian casinos. The Hungarian government sees internet gambling as competition and therefore tries to control it. The European Union has been putting pressure on Hungary to open its gambling industry to foreign interests and adhere to E.U. laws for e-commerce freedom. Poker will not survive these changes and the poker players are vocal with the Hungarian Poker Association asking the country’s president, Laszlo Solyom, to send the bill back to parliament for further consideration.