According to Prague Morning, law officials in the Czech capital have voted in favour of a new ruling which would place a ban on all technical gambling games in the city.
The draft legislation, which is reported to go in front of the City Council later this week, would prohibit all mechanical, electromechanical and electronic games in Prague, which includes slot machines and video lottery terminals.
At the start of this week, Prague councilors came to an agreement on a draft amendment to the law that regulates the gambling business in the city with the final outcome set to take place on Thursday.
Quoted in the Prague Morning, councillor Hana Kordoba Marvanová, stated: “The last decree on gambling regulation is from 2015. Unfortunately, it did not limit the number of casino gambling rooms. Slot machines are a bad sign for the city because they are the most addictive and are linked to all sorts of crime, so it is both a social and security risk,”
The aforementioned decree will see the closure of casinos with slot machines which, according to Prague Mayor Zdenek Hrib in the Prague Morning, would reduce ‘pathological phenomena’ that arise in connection to slot machines.
He said: “This is the third decree to regulate gambling in Prague since 2007. Gaming operators often circumvent laws and regulations. The city authorities must immediately respond to these changes in order to reduce the pathological phenomena that arise in connection with the slot machines,”