About three years ago, Germany passed an online gaming and licensing law that has yet to be enforced because of court challenges and problems. If enacted this law would allow up to 20 licenses for sports betting while banning online casinos and poker.
Recently the country has been under scrutiny and questions have arisen if they are planning to do anything about the current sports-betting monopoly operated by a certain company. Also, people are wondering if they will change their stance on online casinos and poker due to the huge grey market which currently exists in the country.
Online poker and online casino games are currently illegal in Germany, and there is no provision in sight that will try to change this regime. The European Commission claims that Germany hasn’t proven yet that this ban helped in any way to combat problem gambling or money laundering.
The grey market that is currently active and thriving there is estimated to be around €17 million and constantly growing. This means that because the state is not regulating these games, the country allows a huge unregulated grey market to the existing on which they have no control over.
The European Commission also addressed the state of the German lottery. They asked why gaming machines currently allowed to be offered by a wide variety of different operators, while the lottery is currently operated under a monopoly.
It seems that the creators of this gambling treaty have failed in their task and the question on everybody’s lips is when will they open their eyes and look at the bigger picture at hand.