Server-based winners can come
The operation of server-based slot machines can start after the implementing regulations of the Act on the Organization of Gambling have been published in the Hungarian Gazette. According to the association, this could rebuild the gambling market.
On Friday, the Hungarian Gambling Association welcomed the announcement of the implementing regulations and indicated that they met the professional criteria, so that a server-based slot machine operating system could be set up. They added that quick licensing procedures could still affect the government’s planned gaming tax revenue.
István Schreiber, president of the Hungarian Gambling Association (MSzSz), said in the statement that after the transition to server-based operation, some of the workforce may flow back into the industry and the market within a narrower framework, but may begin to rebuild itself.
A server-based slot machine is one that can be operated in a server-based system operated using the Internet, and whose game program operates on a closed, controlled system, and the state also continuously sees the machines' revenues. According to the executive decree published in the gazette, in the case of server-based slot machine operation, the gambling organizer is exempted from the obligation to pay the itemized and percentage gaming tax, instead it will be obliged to pay 33 percent of the net gaming revenue, the specific fees of the sector - authorization and server access fees, and in addition to tax and contribution burdens affecting businesses - details István Schreiber. The president of the MSzSz said that the profession had been waiting for the executive decree because the number of slot machines in the country was "rapidly decreasing": by the end of June, barely four thousand slot machines had a license, after which the increased tax burden was also paid (the gaming tax levied on the machines monthly last November the state raised it from HUF 100 to HUF 500 from the first time).
Before the tax increase, at the end of the third quarter of 2011, there were more than 22 vending machines in operation in Hungary, the association recalls, adding that the budget lost an average of HUF 1,9-2 billion in tax revenue per month.
According to the MSzSz, thanks to the new regulation, if the system can be started within three months after the fast licensing procedures, the government can calculate the gaming tax revenues from server-based operation already this year. The President believes that the authorities will also be interested in fast and predictable administration in order to realize the gaming tax revenues as soon as possible. István Schreiber also emphasized that not only the players of the Hungarian profession, but also several member states of the European Union are waiting for the Hungarian model to come into force, as the market for this most modern form of server-based games is so new in the EU. first legalized, open but strictly state-controlled market.
The government expects HUF 37,2 billion in revenue from the gaming tax to be paid after the operation of slot machines in 2012, almost in line with the 2011 HUF 33,15 billion regulation.
Source: MTI
