Germany Gambling Legislation

9 min readNov 10, 2021

Germany Gambling Legislation 2020
Germany Gambling Legislation 2019

World Law Guide: Legislation Germany; Collection of German Laws. International Law Directory: Germany; Statutes, criminal and civil codes, and other legal materials. A portal of the BYU Law School. Guide to Law Online: Germany; Library of Congress guide to constitutional, legal and government documents. (Transcriptions and translations) German. However, gaming law in Germany is still regulated by an essential legal framework, the State Treaty on Gambling of 15 December 2011. The legal situation changed fundamentally when the third amendment to the State Treaty on Gambling came into force on 1 January 2020. There were not many legal gambling sites in Germany, and the process of obtaining a license was extremely hard and complicated. According to a new regulation that will take place starting the 1st of July, Germany will be legalizing online casinos and poker officially, on a state level. The legislation was passed at a meeting in Berlin. As the key regulation on gambling in Germany, the State Treaty contains the basic legal requirements for the organization of all types of gambling across the German federal states. It provides detailed provisions and guidelines for gambling, in particular for lotteries and betting services.

Online poker in Germany has been thrown into a state of upheaval following the reveal that new legislation significantly alters the playing parameters there.

Among the regulations are strict table and deposit limits, changes to the seating system and more stringent know-your-customer (KYC) requirements.

The changes go into effect Oct. 15 and are meant to prepare operators and customers for July 2021, when everything becomes law. As of now, it’s a state of ‘transitional tolerance,’ according to the reporting of Poker Industry PRO ($).

What Does it Mean for German Online Poker Players?

The most clear and significant changes for poker players in Germany will be as follows:

They’ll be permitted to play a maximum of four tables simultaneously.
They won’t be able to choose their seats or table select.
They’ll be capped at €1,000 in deposits per month.
They’ll have access to a ‘panic button’ that will instantly impose a self-ban for 24 hours.

Some sites already have tables caps in place, although usually not for multi-table tournaments, and blind lobbies and seat selection are also already in use at some sites.

The €1,000 deposit limit and the stricter table limits do seem to make an already tough situation for the German professional even more untenable. Because of the country’s tax laws, most pros had already long since relocated, but the few that remain would seem likely to eye greener pastures elsewhere at this point.

Recreational players may not have that option, and may find themselves forced to reduce their action as a consequence.

Additionally, players will have to fulfill additional verification requirements, such as providing copies of utility bills or confirming identity via webcam.

What are the Operators Doing?

Already, operators are scrambling to get in line, having been put in a tough spot with the legislation details dropping just weeks before the Oct. 15 deadline. Any who don’t risk losing their licenses to operate in the country once the full implementation comes into play next July.

None have announced plans to move players to a ring-fenced pool, but many will be moving their German players to Germany-specific clients that adhere to the features listed above.

Here’s what some of the operators have responded with in the past few days:

Ladbrokes, Redbet and Betfair

They have reportedly exited the market, according to a poster on TwoPlusTwo.

partypoker

Players will be migrated to a new client. PokerNews contributor and Germany native Christian Zetzsche reported players have been offered tournament tickets in return for completing additional KYC verification if they got it done before Oct. 15.

PokerStars

German players who are participating in the segregated PokerStars Europe network, which has a fraction of the player pool of the main network, will see their accounts closed. The Spanish license allowed players from outside the ring-fenced locales of France, Spain and Portugal to participate, but that loophole will apparently be closed for the Germans from now on.

Player-to-player transfers have also reportedly been removed.

GGNetwork

GGNetwork has released a manifesto of upcoming changes for German players. They’re requiring some additional verification documents and adhering to the posted requirements from the German government.

Players on the Natural8 client will be moved to the GG client and lose access to some Natural8-specific promotions, according to an email sent to players.

888poker

888poker will move players to a Germany-specific client on Nov. 2. They’ve released a FAQ detailing the changes but promise ‘a new range of payment methods and even better promotions.’

Unibet

Unibet players will no longer be able to access the desktop client, but instead will be using a web client that will comply with the regulations.

‘We’re working on making the desktop client compliant but can’t say when it will happen,’ a company rep wrote.

Run It Once

Run It Once has temporarily ceased operating in Germany but plans to return.

# Update for Germany # Due to regulatory developments, starting on Thursday, October 15th, Run It Once Poker will n… https://t.co/VjHYwxA6Ff

— Run It Once Poker (@RunItOncePoker)

Winamax

Because Winamax pools its players under the regulated European shared liquidity agreement, PRO speculated that it will likely be forced to withdraw from the market.

Zetzsche reported on Thursday morning that, as expect, Germans can no longer access the client. Winamax has apparently applied for a sports betting license, but poker will not be a part of their offering.

German citizens located in a licensed jurisdiction can keep playing but must prove residency via appropriate documentation.

More Stringent Regulations Down the Line?

While the four-table limit might seem to make it tough to multi-table, it would seem difficult to enforce on the surface since players could presumably play four tables at each client they were able to open and run simultaneously.

However, there’s a chance that may not be the case, if an email sent from Natural8 so its customers is to be believed. A poster on TwoPlusTwo showed a communication from the company that said ‘only one poker client can be played at a time.’

There’s already been speculation that operators will be required to pool their operations and references into a central database so everything can be cross-checked and limits on tables and deposits imposed universally.

Closest casino to lake mary florida. However, it’s unknown if such a system would comply with European data protection laws, so it may wind up being unfeasible. Both a German player discussing the issue with PRO’s Nick Jones and several posters on TwoPlusTwo seemed to think that the data protection laws would prevent that from happening.

Furthermore, PRO reported that the €1,000 monthly deposit limit is ‘less restrictive’ than what’s coming with the full implementation of the regulations next July.

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Online PokerGermanyPoker and the Law

A court in Germany has ruled that the 20-license cap on sports betting licenses under the country’s Interstate Treaty on Gambling is illegal, a move that opens up the market to the rest of the European Union.

The 5th Chamber of the Administrative Court of Wiesbaden found that the restriction to twenty licenses “constitutes an infringement of European law standards, namely against the freedom to provide services (Art. 56 TFEU).”

The Treaty for European Union (TFEU) has primacy over state and federal law in Germany and in all EU member states. National or regional parliaments that pass laws in contravention of the TFEU are legally unable to enforce those laws.

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has ruled that operators cannot be penalized for breaching national laws which are not consistent with the TFEU. Since the German Interstate Treaty (Glücksspielstaatsvertrag) is no longer enforceable, and there are no other laws governing sports betting, operators licensed in other EU member states can offer services to German customers completely legitimately.

Treaty rapidly created chaos

The Interstate Treaty on Gambling was implemented nationally in 2013 after Schleswig-Holstein became the last German Länder to agree to abide by the treaty.

Schleswig-Holstein has its own online gambling laws which allow a full range of online gambling activities, including online poker and casino games. It issued five-year licenses in 2012, but when those licenses expire in 2017, the liberal gaming lawwill be revokedand the Interstate Treaty provisions are due to be implemented.

Now that the Interstate Treaty is in tatters, there is a void that must be filled. Unless Germany amends the treaty to bring it into line with the TFEU, the EU Commission will take it to court. The court filing against Germany is expected by the end of this month, and there is no possibility of Germany fixing the treaty by then.

When the last Court of Justice of the European Union ruling came out in February, Maarten Haijer, Secretary General of the European Gaming and Betting Association, said that it “emphatically confirmed that the German online gambling regime has reached a practical and legal dead end. The CJEU ruled the experimental clause for sports betting introduced in 2012 has failed to remedy the incompatibility with EU law. This means the German online gambling regime still violates EU law and cannot be enforced.”

No political will for change

The treaty is regulated by the regional government of Hesse. Last month, Hesse put togethera set of proposals for amending the Interstate Treaty, based solidly on the Schleswig-Holstein model.

A meeting of the presidents of all the German Länder met to discuss the proposal, but were almost unanimously against. Instead, they proposed minimal changes to the gambling treaty including an increase in the license cap to 40.

The Wiesbaden court ruling has now made it clear that any cap will be judged to be illegal, since there is no rationale that can be justified by the TFEU duty of consumer protection.

A federal solution may be necessary

The industry thinks it’s time for a federal solution.

The main industry lobbying group is the German Association of Telecommunications and Media(DVTM) of which, PokerStars is a member. However, its most influential member is partly state-owned telecoms company Deutsche Telekom (DT).

DT already has an online gaming platform and it was one of the original applicants that the Hesse regulator deemed to be suitable for a sports betting license. Now DT wants the federal government to step in. It believes that there is almost no chance of the 16 separate Länder agreeing to changes that will produce a law which will be legal under EU treaties.

“The exodus of investment and sales abroad and the resulting loss of tax revenue in the billions can be avoided by creating legal certainty for the industry and consumers,” the DVTM said in a statement. “Only a liberalised, regulated market can protect the youth, data and consumer, expand addiction-fighting measures and keep the real ‘black sheep’ out of the industry.”