13 November 2012
The current German treaty for gambling (valid in most states) prohibits Online Poker, and allows only sports-betting. At the moment only 2 states (North Rhine Westphalia and Schleswig-Holstein) haven’t signed the treaty, but should do it very soon.
The German state treaty requires a 5% tax payment for each bet, a measure that lead Betfair to close operations in the biggest market from the European Union.
After local elections, the German state Schleswig-Holstein (that still allows online poker) changed to a leading coalition that already shown intention to sign this new state treaty on Online Gambling, however the companies with a state gaming licence, can still operate until the licence validation end date.
The European Association for Gambling and betting says this treaty is illegal, according to European directives, and presented a formal complaint to the European Commission. Commission that, according to Michael Barnier (European Commissioner for inside markets and services) hopes to elaborate a law on online gambling for all countries in the European Union.
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