Germany Bans Online Gambling

Happy New Year, Germany!  Say goodbye to online poker!  As 2008 begins, so does a total ban on online gambling in Germany.  All sixteen states approved the legislation in mid-December.   

The new law will do the following: 

• Ban the brokering of online gambling.
• Ban the placement of online bets by individuals, regardless of where the gambling company is located.
• Ban any advertising of online gambling.
• Authorizes the German states to force internet service providers to screen out online gambling sites, blocking both simple internet access and financial transactions to the sites. 

Many believe that this move is a precursor to Germany’s monopolization of the online gambling industry within its borders.  Banning all foreign companies from providing poker, blackjack, roulette, and other forms of gambling over the internet clears the path for the federal government to run its own services and thus the revenues. 

Europe’s online gambling companies will not take this lying down.  Tipp24 has already declared its intention to challenge the legislation in court.  Its founder, Jens Schumann, said, “The action taken by the states in this case is another example of how politics interferes in the market economy in a biased manner under the guise of maintaining order. Successful companies in the sphere of state lotteries are to be eliminated through the argument that this will protect the population from gambling addiction. Everyday you can see how seriously the state is really taking the issue by looking at betting outlets, casinos and amusement arcades, which continue to face no advertising restrictions.” 

One article in Die Welt, a German national daily newspaper, said that some of the country’s lawyers expect every single betting company in Germany, around 3,000 of them, to challenge the legislation. 

In October, Austrian company bWin, filed a European Union action against four of the German states, so the groundwork has already begun.  Seeing as the EU was already upset over the United States’ violation of its World Trade Organization agreements, it should be interesting to see how EU members react to this latest anti-trade legislation.