Online brands such as Betfair, bwin and PokerStars could be facing a further three-month delay to their plans to launch regulated online gambling within Germany in 2012.
The breakaway federal state of Schleswig-Holstein (SH) has received six licence applications for online sports betting and one for online casino since licensing requirements were published on 26 January.
But the accompanying Monitoring Ordinance, which maps out the standards for a player management system handling the verification and validation of players and checklists of locally excluded players has yet to be adopted. According to an update by lawyer Christoph Enaux of Olswang: “As the Monitoring Ordinance also relates to online gambling offers, it will still have to be notified to the EU Commission once it has been agreed”. The notification process usually takes three months.
A further obstacle to online gambling in Germany’s northernmost federal state could come in the form of the return to power of the opposition SPD party in SH elections to be held in May. Opposition leader Ralf Stegner last week welcomed the EU’s effective termination of the notification procedure relating to the remaining 15 Lander’s proposed Interstate Gambling Treaty, and has publicly stated his intent to opt SH back into the Treaty should his party win back power. But should licences have been issued by then, it would likely have to weigh up pursuing that course of action against the huge potential cost of paying out compensation to affected operators, Enaux added.
SH was the only one of the 16 German federal states not to sign up to a new Interstate Gambling Treaty under which the remaining 15 Lander (G15) plan to issue no more than 20 licences for private sports betting operators based on an unworkable 5% turnover tax. SH plans to issue unlimited licences to operators for all products based on a 20% gross profit tax (GPT).
Betfair, JAXX and bwin and PartyPoker brand owner bwin.party digital entertainment are among the online operators known to have applied for licences in Schleswig-Holstein.
Online businesses have also been gearing up for the opening of the market since Schleswig-Holstein passed its law last September by inking local sponsorship deals. In November, PokerStars announced a deal with German fourth-tier football club VfB Luebeck which saw its 17,800-capacity stadium renamed the PokerStars.de - Stadion an der Lohmühle. bwin also announced a deal with leading handball team THW Kiel, based in the northern federal state’s largest city. In December, Betfair revealed itself as the new sponsor of Kiel Week, the largest sailing event in the world, which takes place every year in June.
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