Germany Debates Online Gambling Issues

As of the beginning of 2012, the State Gambling Treaty in Germany which bans online gambling, comes to a close. This requires some decisions to be made regarding online gambling, however the country is divided in their ideas on how to handle the situation.

There is the question of permitting other European Union member states offering their gaming services, since this would take away their monopoly. The 16 federal states in Germany are divided between three options; the strict approach, the open-market approach and the grey area between these.

Wolfgang Boehmer, the state premier of Saxony-Anhalt stated that there was an agreement on state monopoly of lotteries, but there were certain disparities of opinion in other areas of online gambling.

Several states are considering opening up online casinos to private operators. In the north, the state of Schleswig-Holstein has decided to set up online sports betting as well as casino and poker licenses to private operators as of this year. They are planning to begin a strict online gambling system by the beginning of 2012.

Several of the states led by Social Democrats, such as the Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia would prefer to keep as much control of gambling as possible, beginning with maintaining control of sports betting in the hands of the government.

Regulation and licensing is the key to getting a piece of the action. Currently, the majority of funds bet in the various areas of online gambling, go to the unregulated market. Gold Media, a research company, revealed that sums as large as €7.3 billion out of a total €7.8 billion went to unregulated online gambling in 2009. This is equal to a whopping 94%.