Gambling Regulatory Authority (ÚRHH) of the Republic of Slovakia has announced a leadership transition as Jana Mravíková assumes the role of Director General effective April 2025. Former Director of Slovakia Department of Finance and Economics, Mravíková will succeed incumbent Martin Bohoš, who is due to leave office but will continue his work with ÚRHH on gambling regulation.

Slovakia’s gambling sector faces a period of change because online gambling has experienced rapid growth at this time. As his final act as Director General, Bohoš presented the 2024 annual report to the Slovak government which included market trends and difficulties of the year.

The total gambling turnover for 2024 exceeded €24.2bn which presented a 14% growth from the 2023 figures. The net gambling losses from 2024 reached €1.45bn after a 9% increase while tax revenues generated €347m for the state budget which was €46m higher than 2023.

Online casinos produced the greatest share of wagers with €12.8bn while they generated €480m in net losses. Online casinos continue to grow their market share significantly through revenue growth of 29% year over year while their state tax contributions increased by 35% to €126m.

Bohoš highlighted that digital innovation combined with changing consumer behaviours and effective regulatory oversight caused the market transition. The government needs to address the increasing difference between online and land-based gambling because of the “hyper divergence” according to Bohoš.

The total wagers made at casinos and gaming halls under land-based gambling reached €8.92 billion. The casino industry tax contributions increased by 26% to reach €16.4m but gaming halls saw their contributions drop by 5% to €58m. Sports betting generated successful results through €2.73bn wagers that produced €86.91 million in tax revenue from major international sporting events.

The growth of unlicensed illegal online platforms continues to be a significant problem. The ÚRHH blacklisted 89 unlicensed sites during 2024 bringing the total number of blacklisted sites to more than 820. Bohoš emphasised that stronger regulatory measures must be established especially to defend vulnerable gaming participants.

The ÚRHH, introduced its ‘action plan’ in 2023 to fight aggressive TV and media advertising through modifications  to the Republic’s “Law of Advertising and Media Services”. The agency requested additional enforcement powers to block the IP addresses of unlicensed websites directly = both mandates are yet to be addressed by the Národná Rada (National Council).

Since the Gambling Act took effect in 2019  Slovakia has not passed any new gambling legislation because ministers want to update consumer protection measures, advertising standards and new fraud prevention safeguards.

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