Slovenian Casinos

Slovenia is a country located in the Northwestern Balkans, surrounded by Austria, Hungary, Croatia and Italy. Its good positioning and access to the Adriatic Sea have always attracted people from all around the globe, so the earliest forms of gambling on this territory date back in the Middle Ages.

However, the gambling activity as we know it today was introduced after Slovenia gained independence from the former socialist republic of Yugoslavia. This was a crucial moment for the country’s gambling market because gambling as an activity was mostly forbidden during the communist period. Given the fact that Slovenia separated itself in a peaceful way, the country evaded the sanction measures and became instantly open to the rest of Europe, so the first Slovenia casinos started emerging.

The period between 1990 and 1995 was a little bit blurry as it comes to gambling regulation. All existing Slovenia casinos were mostly operating in a grey area, which was changed in 1995 with the adoption of the Slovenian Gambling Act. This law has enabled the forming of the State Office for Gaming Supervision, which was under the surveillance of the Ministry of Finance. This office was dedicated to licensing and regulations revision. This act could only be applied to land-based Slovenia casinos since it didn’t include any regulations regarding Slovenia online casinos.

Slovenian Gambling Act

The act itself represents a very strict law that recognizes two separate forms of gambling/gaming. The first group would be “classic gaming”, which includes sports-betting, bingo and various kind of lottery. The second group, recognized as “special gaming” includes standard casino games, such as poker, roulette, blackjack, table games, etc. The main difference is that games from the first group can be organized occasionally without any specific requirements. However, games from the second group can only be organized either at Slovenia casinos or in so-called gambling saloons. The difference between them lies in the fact that gambling saloons may offer slot machines only.

The act has been updated several times, which provided a room for Slovenia online casinos to jump in and online gambling became recognized as an activity as well.

However, the act strictly indicates that only a company registered in Slovenia, whose majority shareholders are either state companies or municipalities or the Republic of Slovenia itself have the permission to organize special gaming activities in their casinos. The act forbids that private investors own more than 49% of any of the Slovenian casinos.

The main change happened back in 2012 when Slovenia issued a new law, following the recommendation of the European Commission. This update made it possible for the foreign companies with registered offices on the Slovenian ground, as well as for all members of the EEA to apply for a license to operate in a Slovenian domain. Also, the fact that casinos must be in the majority ownership of the state or its institutions and companies has been abolished, as well as the fact that only operators that already possess a license for land-based Slovenia casinos can apply for the license for Slovenia online casinos.

Additional Details

Gambling in Slovenia has had its ups and downs at the beginning of the 21st century. However, the market is currently very stabilized with an annual gross income of over 300 million Euros. In 2005 Slovenia casinos have achieved an income of around €370 million, which continued to increase, reaching a peak in 2007 and 2008 with a gross annual income of around €430 million. However, the income began to decrease during the following years, reaching the lowest value back in 2014, with under €300 million. In the past few years, an average gross annual income was around €320 million.

In 2017, the Slovenian government has adopted a new modern version of the privacy protection law, which was designed according to the general regulations of data protection (GDPR). The law regulates several details considering personal information, purposes of its usage, data processing and conduct codes.

Back in 2016 around 1.8 million players worldwide have visited one of the Slovenia casinos. That number continued rising, reaching over 2 million customers in the year 2017. The overall number of employees in Slovenia casinos is currently around 2000 full-time workers. The country currently possesses 11 different land-based casinos, dispersed over its territory. Among them, the most visited ones are Grand Casino, Park Casino and Perla Casino.

Online Gambling in Slovenia

As mentioned above, the year 2012 was the key year for Slovenia online casinos. Gaming act was updated and foreign providers, as well as member states of the EEA, started acquiring licenses to operate in Slovenian domain. This led to an increase in the number of online casinos that recognize and accept Slovenian players, as well as in the number of Slovenia online casinos.

The list below displays some of the online casino websites considered to be among the most visited by the Slovenian players. Each of them will be briefly overviewed in the following parts.

Best Slovenia online casinos:

King Billy;
Bet365;
Bit Starz;
Royal Spinz;
Magik Slots.

King Billy casino awards all newly registered customers with a generous welcome package that contains bonuses for the first four placed deposits. The first deposit bonus comes with a match of 100% up to the amount of €200 (1 BTC), the second carries a match percentage of 50% up to the amount of €200 (1.5 BTC), the third deposit bonus has a 25% match up to the amount of €300 (1.5 BTC) and the fourth deposit bonus bring a match of 25% up to the maximum bonus amount of €300 (1.5 BTC).

Bit Starz is one of the first cryptocurrency-based online casinos that has spread it services on the Slovenian territory. The casino currently offers the first and the second deposit bonus. The first deposit bonus comes with a match of 100% up to the maximum amount set to take the value of €100 (1 BTC). The second carries the same maximum bonus amount, only the match percentage is 50%.

Bet365 offers the welcoming first deposit bonus that takes the match of 100% up to the maximum allowed bonus amount of money set at €100. In order to claim the reward, the players need to deposit at least €20. This promotion comes with the wagering requirements set at 15x, which apply to the bonus amount of money only.

Magik Slots offers several promotions, including the welcoming package, insurance bonus, payment method bonus and free casino bonus. Welcoming package comes in a form of the first deposit bonus with a 100% match up to the maximum bonus amount of an astonishing €1500! Payment method bonus carries an additional 15% of the deposit if it is realized through Ukash, Neteller, Skrill, Postepay, Giropay of Sofort.

Royal Spinz online casino offers a wide range of various online casino games, including over 300 high-quality slot machines. They offer the welcoming promotion, payment method bonus, free casino bonuses and the insurance bonus. A welcoming promotion comes as the first deposit bonus with a 400% match up to the maximum amount of €800. The casino also awards all players that are placing their deposits through the payment methods such as Skrill, Neteller or Postepay with an additional 15% of the initial deposit amount of money.

Mobile Gaming

All of these Slovenia online casinos also offer their customers the opportunity to play favourite games via all mobile devices, including all known tablets and smart-phones that are based on the iOS, Android or Windows Mobile software platforms. Given the fact that the games they offer are mostly HTML5-based, there is no need to install any specific app because all games can be accessed and played in instant-play mode (by using the Adobe Flash player one can run the game without having to exit the app used for browsing the web). So, the only thing a Slovenian player would need to choose is the casino from the list above, whose promotions and games suit him the most and start playing his favourite online casino games.

Slovenia Casinos

The table below contains the most popular Slovenian land-based casinos, along with the city they are located in:

CASINO	CITY
Perla	Nova Gorica
Park Casino	Nova Gorica
Grand Casino	Portoroz (Portoro?)
Grand Casino	Lipica
Aurora	Kobarid

Perla Casino currently offers various promotions, including “Bingo Play and Win”, which includes an online slot machine tournament, Punto Banco tournament, with the iPhone XS Max as a main prize, a promotion for the Sphinx 4D online video slot, American Roulette tournament with the prize pool that takes the value of $25000 etc. There is also a generous loyalty program realized through loyalty points.

Perla Casino also offers the “Bingo Play and Win” promotion. In addition, there are also several more, such as “Monthly Free Play” and “Privilege Nights”.

Grand Casino offers a wide range of various casino games, including slot machines, Poker, Blackjack, Baccarat, several version of Roulette and other casino games. There is also a possibility to enjoy live casino games. The customers can also try to win one of the enormous progressive jackpots, by playing games such as Chain Reaction, King Kong Cash, Quick Hit or Lady’s Cards.