The Impact of Online Casino Sites in Hungary: Trends and Insights

Online gambling is legal in Hungary and there are many players engaging in it every day. In today’s article, we will explore the local gambling laws and look at the online gambling trends in the country, including the popularity of Hungarian online casino sites and games.

Trends in Hungarian Online Gambling

Hungary started relaxing its gambling laws in 2013 which allowed for commercial online casinos to operate in the country. Now, a little over a decade later, we felt it was time to research the impact and trends of online gambling in Hungary.

Let’s speak numbers first as they never lie. The online gambling market in Hungary is not only doing fine, it’s thriving and the projections for the next decade look even more promising. The market has experienced an exponential growth with past revenue and future projections showing a growth rate of 5.55%.

While that might not seem like much at first, the percentage translates to millions of euros in additional profits every year. For example, the revenue from online gambling in Hungary for 2021 was 351 million euros, while the revenue for 2023 was 472 million euros. The revenue is expected to rise to 690 million euros in 2027.

Hungary might have been initially unwilling to change their ways and allow foreign gambling sites to operate in the country, but it seems like the gamble was worth it.

In the following sections, we will discuss how the fairly recent changes to the Hungarian gambling legislation resulted in astronomical profits, and explore the behaviour of Hungarian online players, looking at their preferred gambling games.

Online Gambling Laws in Hungary

The legal landscape of online gambling in Hungary is an interesting one. We previously told you that Hungary only recently expanded and relaxed its gambling legislation, but you might be surprised to find out that Hungary has a long history of legal online gambling.

Gambling has always been a preferred pastime for Hungarians, especially those of the upper societal class, with the first land-based casino, National Casino, opening doors in 1827. The casino was founded by Countess Istvan Szechenyi, a lover of card games.

After the fall of the communist regime in 1989, Hungary was looking for ways to open new markets and create a stronger economic system. Perhaps this is what inspired the government to legalize gambling in 1991 with the passage of the Gambling Act of 1991. The country also allowed private companies to build land-based casinos with the first one being the Las Vegas Casino in 1992.

The Internet was still young and many countries were against online gambling when it first emerged, but Hungary was not one of them. Online gambling has been legal there for as long as it has existed.

Still, online gambling was highly restricted by the state regulator the National Tax and Customs Administration of Hungary (abbreviated NAV in Hungarian). The only gambling provider allowed to operate in the country until 2013 was the state-owned Szerencsejáték Zrt which offered sports betting, lottery, and casino style games.

The company is still in business today whereas it offers sports betting, lottery tickets, and has shares in land-based casinos. The annual revenue of Szerencsejáték Zrt exceeds one and a half billion euros.

In 2006, the European Union warned Hungary that it needed to open its market to foreign (EEA) gambling operators after SportsBet looked for support from the union.

A few years later, in 2013, the Hungarian government amended the Gambling Act of 1991 by explicitly legalizing online gambling and allowing foreign online casinos to operate in the country. However, there was a catch – the online casinos could only operate as long as the company also had land-based casinos in Hungary.

As you might know, most online casino brands operate exclusively online, meaning that despite the fact that they were allowed to enter the Hungarian market, not that many of them could actually do it.

The first online casino licenced by the National Tax and Customs Administration of Hungary was Vegas Portal which only launched in 2017, or four years after the law was changed to allow foreign operators.

In 2018, the European Union sent another warning to Hungary when the Court of Justice of the European Union concluded in its preliminary ruling No. C 3/17 that the then-current Hungarian legislation (requiring online casinos to have land-based locations) restricted the freedom to provide services under Article 56 of the Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union.

Hungary was not happy with the ruling and refused to amend its legislation. However, the government stopped restricting access to offshore online casinos, unless they are fraudulent, thereby allowing citizens to play at online casinos and sportsbooks based abroad.

After continuous pushes by the EU and the EU Court of Justice, Hungary amended the Gambling Act of 1991 yet again in January 2023, essentially ending the monopoly of Szerencsejáték Zrt by allowing foreign online sportsbooks to enter the market without requiring land-based venues.

Popular Online Gambling Options in Hungary

We looked at licenced Hungarian online casinos and online sportsbooks to see which types of gambling are most prevalent in the Central European nation. In terms of sports betting, football takes the lead as the most popular sport to bet on. Curiously, there’s also a lot of interest in e-sports betting which recently became available.

In regards to online casino games, Hungarian players apparently love poker. The table game has always been popular in Hungary and that seems to translate to online gambling as well. Some software providers of RNG poker you can try are Habanero and Merkut, while live providers include Evolution and Pragmatic Play.

Jackpot slots take the second spot as most popular online gambling games in Hungary. The progressive jackpots can reach millions and you can track them at your preferred casino. Most played progressive slots include Elysian Jackpots and Jackpot Raiders by Yggdrasil, and Cash Collection Voodoo Magic by Novomatic.

Conclusion

We hope that the recent Hungarian amendment allowing foreign sportsbooks signals a change in the law concerning online casinos. In the meantime, Hungarian players are legally allowed to bet at EU-based online casinos if the choice of games at the licenced Hungarian casino sites is not sufficient. Players must be at least 18 years old.

FAQ

Thank you for reading this article! Below you can also find common questions asked by players on the topic of Hungarian online gambling: