Czechs Turn to TV to Gamble

Filed in archive Gambling General on August 11, 2005

In a country that has banned internet gambling, the Czech Republic is looking at new ways to feed their gambling habits - and mixing the TV screen with a telephone seems to be proving more and more popular.

New shows are cropping up late at night offering 'fast win' number's style games and allowing players to phone in their 'bets'.

Internet betting was outlawed in the Czech Republic since the government felt the flow of money wasn't transparent enough - this spawned a number of telephone betting firms and its popularity is on the increase.

The czechs are avid gamblers - the market ranks 4th in Europe in terms of betting revenue as a percentage of GDP - and the ban on the internet hasn't stopped the czech players to find and bet online anyway with a number of well-known online bookies offering a Czech version of their site.

The legal gambling market took 84.6 billion crowns last year - an increase of 8.5% with slots and casino gambling showling the largest increases

Article: Tele-gambling takes off