The Institute for Gambling Regulation (IPRH) in the Czech Republic is pioneering a new approach to gambling governance, as revealed in a project in Prague announced in July 2026. The initiative addresses the challenge of illegal gambling, which has resulted in an estimated loss of $15.9 million in tax revenue annually, with players reportedly losing around CZK14.5 billion each year to unlicensed operators. This approach is significant as it attempts to balance regulatory oversight with industry collaboration, potentially offering a new model for gambling governance in Europe.
The IPRH is not a traditional industry lobby but instead aims to create a permanent collaborative platform. This brings together operators, addiction specialists, behavioral economists, regulators, and government officials to devise policies informed by evidence. This model, while still unproven, symbolizes a shift throughout European gambling regulation, where governments and operators recognize they must combine insights to address complexities such as illegal gambling, online harm, and cross-border player behavior.
The institute’s primary initiative is the Integrated Responsible Gambling Information System (IRIS), which exemplifies this philosophy of collaboration. IRIS shifts the focus from operators to players, assessing gambling behaviors across multiple platforms rather than in isolation. This perspective is essential as players often hold multiple accounts and switch between platforms, making it difficult for operators to detect harmful practices when viewed separately.
The IRIS project operates without creating a centralized database of personal gambling histories, which has been a concern for critics. It uses pseudonymized identifiers provided by the Czech state’s licensing system, ensuring operators do not share personal customer data. The system analyzes behavioral indicators across operators to classify risk levels, offering a unified framework for responsible gambling practices.
Jan Řehola, IPRH’s director, acknowledges the system’s limitations, emphasizing that it is not a foolproof solution. The system’s success will be measured by its ability to achieve tangible behavioral changes, such as reduced risk scores over time and more effective use of gambling limits, rather than merely sending warning messages to players. The system’s capability to evaluate and adapt interventions in real time is one of its key strengths.
A critical question is whether operators can align their commercial objectives with player protection. Řehola is realistic about the potential conflict between profit motives and responsible gambling, noting that if individual operators act independently, they risk losing revenue when implementing responsible practices. However, when operators collaborate under a shared methodology, responsible gambling becomes a market standard instead of a competitive disadvantage. There is also a long-term business justification for sustainable gambling practices, as excessive reliance on high-spending players can lead to regulatory and reputational risks.
Another challenge for IRIS is the potential displacement of players to unregulated offshore or cryptocurrency casinos. Řehola admits that if players shift to these riskier environments, the underlying problem remains unsolved. To counter this, IPRH collaborates with the Ministry of Finance and the Customs Administration to combat illegal gambling efforts, emphasizing that effective player protection in the legal market must coincide with strict enforcement against illegal operations.
IRIS focuses on proportionate interventions, aiming to guide players back to sustainable gambling behaviors without resorting to punitive measures. The challenge lies in accurately distinguishing between atypical but harmless gambling and genuinely harmful behavior. The system relies on a combination of operator data, academic research, and expert insights to refine its methodology, ensuring it balances intervention with player autonomy.
The legal framework supporting IRIS is distinctive, as legislative changes enacted on October 1, 2025, explicitly permit licensed Czech operators to share pseudonymized data for player protection. This legal basis is strictly controlled, ensuring that data cannot be used for marketing or competitive purposes, only for responsible gambling.
The Czech Republic’s experiment with IRIS diverges from traditional regulatory approaches, which often vacillate between skepticism of industry self-regulation and heavy-handed legislative solutions. This new approach emphasizes the importance of information sharing and cooperation among diverse stakeholders, asserting that no single entity has all the necessary insights to tackle the complexities of modern gambling markets.
While the ultimate efficacy of IRIS in reducing gambling harm is yet to be determined, the model’s adaptability is central to its potential success. As data is collected and analyzed, the IPRH remains committed to refining the system in response to real-world outcomes, underscoring the importance of flexibility and openness to change in regulatory frameworks. As this initiative progresses, its results will be closely monitored to assess its impact on the gambling market and its potential applicability beyond Czech borders.
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