Better news from Germany

In recent weeks online gambling developments in Germany have hardly made for cheerful reading: New federal taxes on sports betting; provinces signing restrictive treaties; and the prospect of a new government in Schleswig Holstein backing away from that province’s encouragingly liberal online gambling regulatory initiative have all conspired to cast a shadow over optimistic German market predictions.

Threats by the European Commission that it will insist on compliance with EU laws appear to have done little to bring the German lander into line, but this week a report from the German equivalent of the Monopolies Commission must surely have given provincial governments pause for thought.

The Commission reportedly issued a strongly critical assessment of the gambling treaty, casting doubt that it can effectively obviate problem gambling.

Regulations framed under the treaty are also condemned as “…more often driven by fiscal interests than social goals”.

The conclusion the Commission reaches is that the regulations should be revisited and revised ….perhaps at the same time bringing the treaty into compliance with EU law?

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