Legislation
Germany – Casino Association takes position third amendment of the State Treaty on Gaming
By Phil - 29 July 2019
The Lower Saxony state government has now released the draft for a third amendment to the State Treaty on Gaming. According to the state government, the reason for this is “the phasing out of the experimental phase in the field of sports betting.”
Otto Wulferding, CEO of the German Casino Association DSbV said on the matter. “We need new regulations for the land-based placement of sports betting but also for online gambling as a whole. Because the boom of online casinos and sports betting shows that the laws passed at that time found no practical application. Gambling has outgrown the previous rules due to technological progress.”
Even the “experimentation phase” did not remedy the situation.
The state governments had signed the Third State Treaty on Gaming in spring 2019. The countries must ratify it. The recast was not only needed because of the digital transformation. The Second State Treaty on Gaming of 2017 had not been ratified by some countries – and had become obsolete.
Mr. Wulferding added: “We demand a transnational regulation that does not just take into account the digital transformation in gambling. It must also secure the implementation in legal reality. Thanks to the experimentation clause in the First State Treaty on Gaming, sports betting slipped into a gray area and became the acid test of all gambling legislation. The uncertainty took advantage of providers of online gambling to create a normative force of the factual through advertising. In public opinion, the impression may arise that online gambling is legal. We welcome the fact that the reform will create a legally secure situation and strengthen legal awareness of gambling. ”
The German gambling association DSbV eV in Baden-Baden represents the German casinos under public law: 9 companies are active in eight federal states (Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Brandenburg, Bremen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Saarland, Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein)
