The date in the old calendar was 5 November. It is no longer the day Austria may adopt its gambling bill. The European Commission record for notification 2026/0415/AT, read on 6 November 2026, shows the end of the standstill as 5 November 2026, with 7 December 2026 beside it. Malta is the member state named as having issued a detailed opinion. You still cannot open an account on a new Austrian online concession. None has been granted. The National Council has not passed the bill.
A detailed opinion is a delay. The Commission’s note on the 2015 procedure says the standstill starts at three months, and a detailed opinion extends it by one further month when the draft is a rule on services, or by three further months when it is a product rule. This file is an information-society service. The date printed in parentheses is 7 December 2026. Use that date. This article does not invent a reason for the gap between a neat calendar month and 7 December. The notification page read for this piece does not contain Malta’s opinion. iGaming Business reported on 4 November that the opinion arrived that morning. That timing is trade press. The Commission record is the source for the date and for Malta’s name.
What the bill would change, once it is law
The government bill is 594 d.B., typeset on 17 August 2026. It would amend the Gambling Act and the Telecommunications Act 2021. The explanatory notes say several operators would be able to offer online gambling, so that players are less likely to drift into an illegal offer. The operative clauses are narrower than a headline about an open market. The new § 14(1) keeps a single concession for the specified lotteries in §§ 6 to 12a, including when you play those lotteries online. It then allows an unlimited number of concessions for online gambling under a new § 13.
The 29 November 2025 note on this site identified win2day, in the Casinos Austria group, as the current exclusive online holder. The bill does not name that company. A second brand’s banner is not the new § 13 concession. There is no such concession today.
What you still cannot do
You cannot deposit on the strength of this bill. The text still carries a blank Federal Law Gazette number, BGBl. I Nr. xx/20xx. The parliament page for 594 d.B., read on 6 November 2026, shows arrival in the National Council on 5 August 2026 and assignment to the Finance Committee on 14 September 2026. The same page says committee deliberations have not been taken up. The procedure list has no plenary vote.
You also cannot treat 7 December as an opening day. That date is the end of a standstill on adoption. The bill cites Directive (EU) 2015/1535 in its notification clause. When the standstill ends, Austria may adopt the notified text. It does not have to. Adoption still needs the National Council, and the bill’s own dates for a new concession come later.
The player rules are in the draft, not at the cashier
If the text passes as typeset, new § 13(4) makes two deposit caps a required condition of online gambling. Until your 26th birthday the cap is €250 a week. From your 26th birthday it is €1,680 a month. From your 23rd birthday the bill allows a different amount, and only where a risk under § 25(3) is not expected, with monitoring and feedback tools stepped to the size of the cap. That is a permission for the operator. It is not a right you can demand.
Virtual slots are tied to the machine rules. New § 13(2) applies § 5(5) items 1 to 6 by analogy. Item 1 is a stake of at most €5 a game. Item 3 is a round of at least 2 seconds, which you start yourself. Item 5 blocks a side bet that pushes the stake or the prize over those caps. Item 6 switches the game off after 90 minutes of uninterrupted play, for a break of at least 15 minutes, with a video on the risks. Other online games, the ones that are not virtual slots, do not pick up the €5 stake. They do pick up the self-limit rule. You set daily, weekly and monthly caps. A cut takes effect at once. A rise waits 72 hours. That is § 5(4) item 10, brought in by § 13(2) and § 13(3).
None of those sentences binds a cashier this week. The bill says a concession for electronic lotteries granted before the new act would keep the old rules until the end of 31 December 2028. New online concessions could be issued from 1 January 2027, with effect from 1 October 2027. Both clocks start only if the act is passed and published. A balance you already hold is not moved by today’s Commission record.
Land-based machines are on another timetable. The bill says several of the new machine clauses, including the €5 stake, do not apply to existing state licences until the end of 2030. A casino floor does not change because a Brussels file changed its date.
An unlicensed site does not get a head start
The bill would make a past illegal offer a problem for the applicant, not a head start for you. New § 14(2a) says the applicant, or the holder of the brand, must have stopped prohibited games offered for participation from Austria from 1 January 2027 until a § 13 concession is granted. The text calls that the cooling-off period. If the offer is stopped only after 31 December 2026, the applicant is barred for 18 months from the day it stops. If the stop comes only after 31 December 2029, the bar is 24 months. A line that says an Austrian licence is on the way is not a concession. Playing there now is not how the bill builds eligibility.
The same subsection says the gambling levy in § 57(2), so far as it was due and not yet time-barred, has to have been paid on time, or disclosed and paid in full before the expression of interest, with records of stakes, winnings and bonuses. Every final domestic civil judgment that a player has won against the applicant or the brand holder has to have been paid. A partial payment in an insolvency does not count. That is a gate for a future applicant. It does not collect a judgment for you, and it is not in force.
The draft also schedules a central exclusion register, blocking orders and payment blocking. Those tools are written to take effect at the end of 31 December 2026, which is the start of 1 January 2027. A date in an unpassed bill does not block a payment today, and it does not turn an offshore cashier into a legal one.
What to do this week
- Do not deposit because a banner says Austria has opened. The Finance Committee has not started deliberations. The bill has no Federal Law Gazette number.
- 5 November 2026 was the original end of the standstill. The Commission record now prints 7 December 2026 beside it, after a detailed opinion from Malta. That delays adoption. It does not issue you a licence, and it is not a veto.
- A site that takes you from Austria without an Austrian concession is still outside the Act. If this bill passes as written, that offer has to be off from 1 January 2027 until a concession is granted, or the applicant is locked out for 18 months.
- The €250 week, the €1,680 month, the €5 spin, the 2-second round and the 90-minute break are clauses in the bill. They do not bind a site this week.
- If you already have a balance with the incumbent concessionaire, this notice does not move it. The bill would let a pre-existing electronic-lottery concession keep the old rules until the end of 2028.
18+. Only a bankroll you can lose, and only where the operator is allowed to take you.
Sources: European Commission TRIS, notification 2026/0415/AT, read 5 November 2026; TRIS, the notification procedure in brief; government bill 594 d.B., law text, typeset 17 August 2026; explanatory notes to 594 d.B.; parliament procedure page for 594 d.B., read 5 November 2026. The 4 November timing of Malta’s opinion is taken from iGaming Business and is marked as trade press above. The opinion text was not on the TRIS notification page.
Published: 06. November 2026
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