German regulator urges gambling review

The chief executive of the association said that the country needs to review all its gambling regulations.

Germany.- Georg Stecker, chief executive of the Association of German Gaming Machine Manufacturers (Deutsche Automatenwirtschaft), called for a review of all gambling regulations that are currently in place.

The executive discussed the present state of the industry at the Gaming Machine Industry Summit in Berlin, where he said that instead of legalising new gambling modalities like iGaming, they should review casinos, lottery and slot machine regulations and make them subject to new controls, Gambling Intelligence reported.

Stecker said that the current controls allow a black market that accounts for 20 per cent of all gambling in Germany. He believes that this is the result of failed regulations: “Only a coherent regulatory framework of all game forms, based on strict quality standards, can limit the black market, protect consumers in a sustainable way and ensure legal gambling has a future.”

“It makes no sense to regulate gambling halls by distance while playing online anywhere. The honourable solution should not be the stupid one. Only with a significantly strengthened legal offering can the state fulfil its channelling mandate – only in this way will the flow of black market products be dried up.”