This story is sponsored by BetfairThe government in the breakaway German state of Schleswig Holstein has admitted it is powerless to prevent the issue of more online gambling licences before its parliament reconvenes in August.
According to interior minister Andreas Breitner (pictured) of the SPD political party, that is the earliest the state parliament could discuss his coalition government’s electoral pledge to look into repealing the state’s gambling act and opt it back into the Interstate Gambling Treaty ratified by the other 15 Federal states (G15) last week. By which time, “I expect that another four to six licenses will have been issued,” Breitner told SHZ.de.
The politician said that if his coalition government, formed of the SPD, Green Party and the SSW Danish minority party, gained the necessary support from parliament for this course of action – by no means a foregone conclusion given its slender one-seat majority – it would impose “a moratorium” on the issue of further licences while it looked at whether the act could be repealed or amended without becoming liable for damages to existing licensees or breaching competition law.
However, Breitner emphasised that while his government opposed the law passed by the previous FDP-CDU coalition, it would need to honour the seven licences handed out to Betfair, bwin.party, bet365 and three other companies, due to the potential for these operators to sue for damages. Proposals to cancel the existing licences “are not of this world”, Breitner said, who revealed his department had budgeted to receive €5m this year from the issue of new licences, for which 42 further applications had been received.
The interior minister did not however reveal if the new licences would be more sports betting licences or the first for online casino, including poker.
Schleswig-Holstein’s law allows for the issue of unlimited licences for all products based on a 20% gross profit tax, in contrast to the Treaty ratified by the G15 last week, that only plans for the issue of up to 20 licences for online sports betting to private operators based on a 5% turnover tax. This Treaty coming into force on 1 July increases the likelihood SH may avoid the issue of any online casino licences in order to avoid additional potential conflicts with the G15, where the offer of online poker and casino by private operators will remain prohibited.
