Prague City Council has voted in favour of a decree banning all electronic and mechanical gambling machines in the Czech capital from 2024.
The decree was approved by the legislature earlier in the week and only needed councillors’ approval. Councillors say they approved the decree in a bid to tackle problem gambling.
Councillor Hana Kordová Marvanová said: “We decided to follow the path of a blanket ban on slot machines throughout the city because we set ourselves the goal of reducing the most dangerous forms of gambling, which include playing slot machines.
“Statistics show that limiting the availability of gambling has a significant positive impact in the area of negative social phenomena, such as pathological gambling or non-payment.
“We have promised all parts of the city that they do not have to worry about the loss of revenue from taxes on technical games, which they have so far used to finance public needs such as culture, education, sport or social affairs.
“Together with the approval of the decree, the task of compensating the City Council for possible loss of income so that the financing needs of important public activities do not suffer was also approved.”
Several other cities in the Czech Republic, including Brno, Ostrava, Břeclav, Kyjov, Klatovy and České Budějovice, have already implemented similar bans.
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