Poker in Austria: online rooms, Casino Baden and the CAPT Million

Austria is a poker country with a complicated rulebook. Vienna's private card rooms — the Concord Card Casino and its rivals — were once among the busiest in Europe and hosted EPT and WSOP Europe stops, but the current Glücksspielgesetz reserves casino games, poker included, for the Casinos Austria licence, and the independent rooms closed. Live poker today means Casinos Austria: Baden, Linz, Salzburg, Innsbruck, Graz and Bregenz all run poker, with Casino Baden as the flagship and host of the CAPT Million. Online, GGPoker accepts players from Austria on its international site.

Is online poker legal in Austria?

Austrian law grants a single online gambling licence, held by Austrian Lotteries for its win2day platform, and Casinos Austria holds the land-based casino licences. There is no offence for an individual who plays on a foreign-licensed site, and hundreds of thousands of Austrians do; the legal risk sits with operators, and Austrian courts have repeatedly allowed players to reclaim losses from operators without an Austrian licence. GGPoker serves Austria on its international platform. A reform of the Glücksspielgesetz that would open the online market to more licensees has been discussed for years; until it passes, this is the position. Minimum age is 18. This is general information, not legal advice.

Live poker in Austria

With the private card rooms gone, Casinos Austria is the only live game in town, and its offer is better than its monopoly status suggests. Casino Baden, half an hour south of Vienna, spreads pot-limit hold'em and Omaha cash games daily and runs the country's busiest tournament schedule, culminating in the CAPT Million every November, a €550 event with €1 million guaranteed and Day 1 flights across the country. The Casinos Austria Poker Tour (CAPT) also stops in Linz, Salzburg, Innsbruck, Graz and Bregenz, and Salzburg's Neujahrsfestival and Royal Bounty Festival are fixtures of the calendar. Note that Austrian casino rules mean cash games are spread as pot-limit rather than no-limit, and that the Vienna casino itself currently lists no poker.

Austrian players

Austria punches above its weight: Vienna is home to a large community of online professionals, several German high-roller stars such as Ole Schemion have made it their base, and Austrians regularly feature on EPT and WSOP final tables. We are building out profiles of the country's top players.