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Germany – Saxony-Anhalt ratifies State Treaty on Gambling

By - 27 April 2021

The state parliament of Saxony-Anhalt has now ratified the State Treaty on Gambling 2021, meaning it is now certain that the new State Treaty on Gaming will come into force on July 1. Saxony-Anhalt is the seat of the future joint gaming authority of the federal states and therefore played a key role in the ratification process of the State Treaty on Gaming.

Georg Stecker, spokesman for the umbrella organisation Die Deutsche Automatenwirtschaft e.V. (DAW), said: “The new State Treaty on Gaming heralds a turning point in gaming regulation. We particularly welcome the fact that quality criteria are being applied for the first time in the regulation of commercial slot machine games. Now it is important that the federal states actually rely on the quality of amusement arcades when implementing the state treaty and use the opportunity to separate the wheat from the chaff.”

“Only with a sufficient and high-quality range can the human instinct to play can be steered in an orderly manner and the important channeling mandate from the State Treaty on Gambling can be fulfilled.”

Mr. Stecker welcomed the fact that the State Treaty on Gaming in 2021 will regulate the entire gaming market for the first time and, with a view to the online offers that will soon be permitted and the future joint gaming authority of the federal states, demanded: “We need a powerful and well-staffed gaming authority quickly. This is the only way to effectively control the new offers. ”

“It makes no sense to look at individual forms of play in isolation and to regulate them in isolation. You have to look at the gaming market in its entirety, ”said the DAW board spokesman before the committee. In view of the upcoming legalization of online offers, a quantitative approach to regulation is no longer up-to-date. “The clocks have continued to turn,” said Mr. Stecker.

The slot machine industry therefore welcomes the fact that the new State Treaty on Gambling provides for the first time qualitative criteria for the regulation of commercial slot machine games.

“The only thing that is decisive for youth and player protection is what happens in the arcade,” says the DAW- Board spokesman who called for “future-oriented regulation in the state of Brandenburg.”

He called on Brandenburg to obtain multiple concessions with up to three gambling halls for a limited period if they meet certain high quality criteria. In addition, they should be allowed to fall below minimum distances, provided that they can be shown to meet demanding qualitative criteria.

“We need a sufficient and attractive legal offer. This is the only way to fulfill the important channeling mandate from the State Treaty on Gambling, to steer the natural human instinct to play in a legal way.”

The devastating effects of the crowding out of legal offers can be seen in the neighboring state of Berlin. “We assume that the illegal offer in Berlin is now ten times as large as the legal one.

Thomas Breitkopf, 1st chairman of the Berlin and East Germany Association and President of the Bundesverband Automatenunternehmer, added: “Economic livelihoods also depend on the implementation law. Today it is also about 1,400 people who are employed in the vending machine industry in the state of Brandenburg, mostly in family-run businesses.”

The association ban alone threatened three quarters of all concessions in the country, he explained.

Mr. Breitkopf also called for the quality of the offer to be relied on when regulating commercial slot machine games.

“There are much more suitable means for effective youth and player protection than the minimum distances, please use them and give proper companies with a high level of youth and player protection in the state of Brandenburg a future.”

Caption: Georg Stecker

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