State-owned Sächsische Spielbanken gains online slots licence in Germany
It’s the first state-own casino operator to pick up one of Germany’s new online slots licences.
Germany.- The Sachsen-Anhalt state administration office has granted a 13th online slots licence, and it’s the first to go to a state-owned casino operator. It’s granted a licence to Sächsische Spielbanken, the state-run monopoly land-based casino operator in Sachsen (Saxony).
Sächsische Spielbanken will offer online slots nationally at Sachsenlotto.de. Online gambling was legalised in Germany in July 2021. This is the latest online slots licence following recent approvals for Interwetten and Novomatic’s Admiral, Tipico and Rootz.
Tax revenue from German gambling came in at €596.1m in Q3, a rise of 15.5 per cent year-on-year mostly due to the expanded licensing of online slots, with ten operators licensed (another two licences have just been granted). For the year to date, tax income is up 20 per cent at €1.96bn.
Online slots generated €123.2m in tax revenue in Q3, up from just €32.7m in the first quarter of this year. The 5.3 per cent tax rate on online slot stakes was one of the biggest controversies about Germany’s new regulated market, which many believed would fail to prove competitive.
Meanwhile, Germany’s new federal gambling regulator, Die Glücksspielbehörde (GGL), has said it will put pressure on ISPs to block the lottery betting site Lottoland. It noted that lottery betting is not permitted under Germany’s fourth interstate gambling treaty and said it believes the vertical to be a risk because players can confuse lottery betting with the actual lottery itself.
The GGL said it may seek to issue “sizeable” fines against ISPs that don’t comply with its orders. The GGL is due to take over online casino licensing from the Sachsen-Anhalt state administration office at the start of 2023.
