Yes to More Sports Betting Licences in Germany But No to Online Casinos

The representatives of Deutsche Lotto and Totoblock made an announcement to the local media on Friday. They proclaimed that 16 state ministers of the country agreed on doubling the number of the existing 20 available sports betting licences in Germany.

Germany enlarged its sports betting licences but rejected online gambling at the same time. There was a meeting held last Thursday when the representatives of the 16 German states had an agreement on duplicating the number of sports betting licences, however the reconsideration of the country’s gambling pact was rejected.

Since the country’s current gambling regulation was labelled as illegal under the EU laws, state leaders held a meeting in Berlin to find out a solution to this complication.

Allowed Forms of Gambling in Germany

According to gambling news, gambling is legal throughout the country. There are 76 available facilities altogether in Germany, spread over 64 cities. The legal form of gambling is casino gambling; the gamblers’ paradise there is Hamburg. Poker is the most popular one among the facilities, and in terms of betting, horse betting industry is rapidly increasing, the country has over 50 horse race tracks.

The Reason of Raising Sports Betting Licences in Germany

Private operators have been banned to offer sport bets and games of chance to the public since 2008. At the same time, state operators had the only right to offer services. This agreement was based on the Interstate Treaty on Gambling until the point when the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) voted it down by saying that state monopoly on sports betting is against the EU law. Therefore, to correct the illegalities and make German gambling law compatible with the EU requirements, 20 private operators got sports betting licences in Germany.

Despite the country getting these online licences for sports betting in 2014, the legal challenges made them fail, so any of those licences have not been mobilized yet.

According to the latest news, the number of legally offered online sports betting sites have exceeded to 40, which is a half solution to the controversies of the German’s gambling industry. The problem being is with the re-legalization of sports betting licences in Germany (or doubling them), online casino and poker operators are still ruled out from the market. They are waiting to be legalized but their chances are thin, as the ministers expressed their primary aim was to cure the urgent interstate treaty with this ‘minimally invasive surgery‘.

Gambling Herald empathizes with German citizens, but if you come from another country then check out some of our gambling reviews to see what you like best. So take the chance of that and play online casinos or take your bets online whenever you want.