German minister urges legislators to make changes

Saxony-Anhalt Finance Minister André Schröder has warned that unless the 16 member states work on a unified front in their attempt to regulate online gambling in Germany, their attempts are doomed to fail. The interstate treaty introduced in 2012 has led to a state of limbo among the temporarily licensed operators in Schleswig-Holstein.

In an interview with the Presseportal website, Schröder said: "The Prime Ministers of all the federal states have agreed on changes to the gaming contract, which was a month-long struggle and a process of weighing up the debts, mainly to address the problems of enforcement that we have with the current regulations - online casinos and sports betting - and to ensure consumer protection. Saxony-Anhalt is in favour of this gaming agreement with its amendments. It is now important to ensure ratification.” 

Schröder then added: “If the ratification fails in individual countries, then these regulations cannot be applied nationwide as of January 1, 2018. This is unfortunate, because then the current regulations simply would continue. Then the execution problems would continue. That is why we are very much campaigning for the counties to ratify. If this is not the case, we need to consider how we can deal with the continuity of current regulations and what we can do to protect consumers." 
Torsten Meinberg, leader of the German Lotto and Totoblock (DLTB) echoed Minister Schröder’s comments saying: "If the treaty is not ratified, sports betting will remain gray and illegal gambling cannot be effectively controlled. Foreign gambling providers without a German licence are massively attacking the public-oriented gambling game and ignoring consumer protection. Speedy action is required."