Germany urges new online gambling legislation
The Finance Minister of Saxony-Anhalt said that individual states need to implement a treaty in order to legalise the modality.
Germany.- Finance Minister of Saxony-Anhalt, André Schröder said that in order to legalise the online gambling industry in Germany, all individual states need to implement the proposed Interstate Treaty on gambling.
The Interstate Treaty needs all 16 individual states to approve and implement the legislation before the first day of January 2018 in order to pass the Treaty. The Minister wants all states to make it official to stop it from becoming inoperative. He also added that if the ratification is in charge of individual counties, then the regulations can’t be applied on a national level, and the current regulations would continue, therefore the problems would do as well.
“The Prime Ministers of all the federal states have agreed on changes to the gaming contract, which was a month-long struggle and a process of weighing up the debts, mainly to address the problems of enforcement that we have with the current regulations – online casinos and sports betting – and to ensure consumer protection. Saxony-Anhalt is in favour of this gaming agreement with its amendments. It is now important to ensure ratification.”
“If the treaty is not ratified, sports betting will remain gray and illegal gambling cannot be effectively controlled. Foreign gambling providers without a German licence are massively attacking the public-oriented gambling game and ignoring consumer protection. Speedy action is required,” said Torsten Meinberg, leader of the German Lotto and Totoblock (DLTB) as reported by local media.
Earlier this year, the European Commission dismissed Germany’s plans to overhaul its online gambling market as it’s “not a viable solution.” The new State Treaty on Gambling, agreed upon by the 16 German lander last October, was rejected as a letter from the EC considered this solution anti-competitive. The new legislation aimed to lift the previous treaty’s cap on the number of sports betting licences. Previously, those who failed to win one would challenge the decision at court, and by that preventing the government from properly issuing any other betting license.
