- Germany has introduced a new Interstate Treaty on Gambling.
- This treaty went into effect on July 1.
- The treaty redefines the licensing process for online sports betting, slots and poker.
MAGDEBURG, Germany - Germany’s Interstate Treaty On Gambling 2021 has started to take effect, and this has changed how sportsbooks and online gambling operators may function in the country.
The Treaty allows for operators to get licenses to offer sports betting, virtual slot machines and online poker. These licenses notably do not include online casino games such as roulette, but given that slot machines are a large percentage of casino revenue, this is likely not a huge problem for potential operators.
The licenses also prohibit any kind of live interaction with ongoing blackjack and roulette games - they don’t want anyone breaking these rules by playing blackjack over Zoom, basically.
There are several intriguing requirements that are common to all of the licenses, which will govern how online slot machines, sports betting and poker work in Germany moving forward.
First, in order to apply for these licenses, a security deposit of 5 million euros is required. This is roughly $5.9 million. Second, across all gambling platforms offered by a single entity, an individual player cannot spend more than 1000 euros a month.
Similar spending restrictions are placed on slot machines, which are limited to 1 Euro wagers at most, and have minimum requirements on game time as well.
This seems like a fairly straightforward solution to the potential individual problems caused by widespread access to online gambling. It won’t solve gambling addiction, by any means, but it does limit the damage such addiction can do over the internet.
Sachsen-Anhalt’s gambling authority will be the overseer of these protocols, responsible for enforcing regulations like the 1000 euro monthly limit.
Online sports betting has been freed up a bit under this new Treaty, which allows for prop betting and live betting in addition to simply wagering on the outcome of a game. Taxes on online poker and online slots are set at 5.3%, and sports betting joins them, moving from 5.0% to 5.3%.
Overall, the changes being made in this Treaty are fairly minor, but they can be impactful for anyone interested in online casino gameplay in Germany.