{"id":129512,"date":"2020-03-11T12:11:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-11T19:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=129512"},"modified":"2020-03-11T13:11:37","modified_gmt":"2020-03-11T20:11:37","slug":"concord-card-casinos-bankruptcy-over-e600-million-tax-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/concord-card-casinos-bankruptcy-over-e600-million-tax-bill\/","title":{"rendered":"Austria\u2019s \u2018Poker King\u2019 Folds His Hand, Declares Concord Card Casinos Bankruptcy Over \u20ac600 Million Tax Bill"},"content":{"rendered":"

Austria\u2019s 12 Concord Card Casinos have been shut down forever, according to their owner, Peter Zanoni, whose CCC Gruppe filed for bankruptcy this week under the weight of a \u20ac600 million tax bill.<\/p>\n

\"Concord
Peter Zanoni says that for every euro earned, he had to give five to the taxman. (Image: Concord Card Casino\/Fabfotos)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Zanoni, dubbed by local press as \u201cder Poker-K\u00f6nig\u201d (Poker King), has been fighting an oppressive tax regime since the mid-1990s that put him on the hook for up to five times the amount of CCC\u2019s actual gross gaming revenues.<\/p>\n

In addition, under a change in Austrian gaming law effective from January 1, 2020, poker clubs like Zanoni\u2019s now require a full gambling license, whereas previously they had been able to operate under a business license.<\/p>\n

The catch is that only the state-backed monopoly, Casinos Austria<\/a>, can apply for a full gambling license.<\/p>\n

\u2018Not Even God Could Pay\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Since the EU has long frowned upon the Casinos Austria monopoly for its violation of the principles of free cross-border trade<\/a>, Zanoni had vowed to fight this all the way to the European Court of Justice.<\/p>\n

But he appears to have folded his hand. He told the Austrian Press Agency (APA) that he could no longer wait for the outcome of a complaint in the country\u2019s Constitutional Court, which was expected to have made a ruling in February.<\/p>\n

\n

Of the \u20ac600 million ($676<\/span> million) tax bill from hell, he said: \u201cNot even dear God can pay that \u2026 For every gross euro, I have to pay a five-euro tax\u2026 This is simply a chase that is now over.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

CCC\u2019s operations were taxed on stakes, rather than revenues. That means that in a tournament where the player-funded prize pool is, say, \u20ac100,000, it was forced to pay a percentage of the whole \u20ac100,000 rather than on the small rake it took from the pool as the operator.<\/p>\n

To add insult to injury, Casinos Austria\u2019s poker games, like all its other games, are taxed by revenue.<\/p>\n

Police Raids<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Zanoni initially shut down his venues following a raid by financial police on the Montesino venue in Vienna in January, citing \u201cillegal and excessive administrative measures against the [CCC\u2019s] operations.\u201d He also cited a desire to protect guests and employees from exposure to \u201cthe unqualified pressure of the financial police.\u201d<\/p>\n

He recently reopened some venues to offer free-to-play games, hoping that he could make some revenues from selling food and drink. But on Monday, he sent a message to his several thousand employees, announcing the card rooms would be closing for good.<\/p>\n

Zanoni characterized it as a David versus Goliath dispute, but one in which David lost.<\/p>\n

Proceedings are still pending in the European Court of Justice and the Austrian Constitutional Court.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Austria\u2019s 12 Concord Card Casinos have been shut down forever, according to their owner, Peter Zanoni, whose CCC Gruppe filed for bankruptcy this week under the weight of a \u20ac600 million tax bill. Zanoni, dubbed by local press as \u201cder Poker-K\u00f6nig\u201d (Poker King), has been fighting an oppressive tax regime since the mid-1990s that put […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":129526,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[60,14],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nConcord Card Casinos Bankruptcy Over \u20ac600 Million Tax Bill<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Concord Card Casinos poker rooms close their doors in Austria after CCC Gruppe founder Peter Zanoni says he can no longer wait for court decisions.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/concord-card-casinos-bankruptcy-over-e600-million-tax-bill\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Concord Card Casinos Bankruptcy Over \u20ac600 Million Tax Bill\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Concord Card Casinos poker rooms close their doors in Austria after CCC Gruppe founder Peter Zanoni says he can no longer wait for court decisions.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/concord-card-casinos-bankruptcy-over-e600-million-tax-bill\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-03-11T19:11:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-03-11T20:11:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/peter-zanone.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"697\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/concord-card-casinos-bankruptcy-over-e600-million-tax-bill\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/concord-card-casinos-bankruptcy-over-e600-million-tax-bill\/\",\"name\":\"Concord Card Casinos Bankruptcy Over \u20ac600 Million Tax Bill\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/concord-card-casinos-bankruptcy-over-e600-million-tax-bill\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/concord-card-casinos-bankruptcy-over-e600-million-tax-bill\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/peter-zanone.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-03-11T19:11:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-03-11T20:11:37+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Concord Card Casinos poker rooms close their doors in Austria after CCC Gruppe founder Peter Zanoni says he can no longer wait for court decisions.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/concord-card-casinos-bankruptcy-over-e600-million-tax-bill\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/concord-card-casinos-bankruptcy-over-e600-million-tax-bill\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/concord-card-casinos-bankruptcy-over-e600-million-tax-bill\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/peter-zanone.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/peter-zanone.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":697,\"caption\":\"Peter Zanone says that for every euro earned he had to give five to the taxman. 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