There is a tiny town in the south of Czech Republic called Ceske Velenice. At first glance, there is nothing exceptional about it, but within you will find there is one slot machine for every 13.5 citizens—a ratio that even Nevada can’t beat.
As a country of 10 million people, Czech Republic is estimated to have the second highest number of gambling machines per capita in the world—second only to Japan—according to Matej Hollan from Brneni Association, an NGO in pursuit of limiting the rampant gambling market in the small European country.
It all started when a new type of gambling machine entered the market: The Video Lottery Terminal (VLT). The VLT gambling terminals are controlled by one central computer, and were first introduced in 1983 in Bellevue, Neb.,—and banned two years later. But since then, VLTs have spread across the world and made their way into the Czech market in 2005.
Back then the Ministry of Finance decided to treat the VLT as a “new unknown type of machine.” This decision by the ministry went against a law stipulating that existing regulations should be “adequately” applied on unknown types of gambling machines.
From the average user’s perspective, the VLT isn’t much different from a normal slot machine—it would suck in your money, let you play a game, and should give you on average (as stated by law) a minimum of 10 to 20 percent of the inserted money back in winnings. But the ministry’s treatment of the VLT was very unusual.
