The Decision Of The German Government Regarding Online Gambling Has Been Delayed

The political leaders (premiers) of the sixteen German provinces (states) field to come to a unanimous agreement last Wednesday with respect to a law that had been proposed for the protection of state gambling monopolies through the banning of online Internet gambling in Germany.

Although such a ban will require the approval of the central government and federal parliament, those who are responsible for the individual German states did come together to discuss it. There already are three states in Germany that have given their approval to such a ban and put it into law. The German newspaper Handelsblatt reports that there is a strong motivation for the other states to comply since practically all of them are running some form of lottery.

Germany may have a problem with the European Commission if it uses grounds of protecting its interests since the Commission is against such actions and is working to ease up regulations relating to Internet and other forms of gambling while receiving opposition from local states that are working to protect their lotteries and gambling monopoly interests.

The German states that did set up regulations barring gambling did so in reaction to moves by the Austrian concern, Bwin Interactive, which they said was violating their laws by not first receiving government permission to operate in their locales.

Bwin has gone against French regulations saying that they infringing on their rights to operate as established by principles protecting open competition under the EC Treaty. The European Court of Justice is handling the complaint and if they support the plaintiff would have to extend protection to all European countries including Germany.

The German press has reported that Schleswig-Holstein was the main force responsible for the voting down of the ban at the meeting yesterday. By refusing to agree with such legislation the ban came short of the required unanimous vote. Apparently 15 other German states were in agreement "in principle" with the proposal.

There is some indication that the other 15 states may yet go ahead with the proposed ban on gambling. Such an occurrence might lead to additional problems since the Schleswig-Holstein state has claimed that in such a case it will bring the matter to the German Federal Court.

If on the other hand, the 15 go ahead with the ban then there will be issues raised in regard to the questions of the authority of state gaming licenses for sites in all parts of Germany.

The various German states are also likely to exhibit caution in respect to a reaction on the part of the European Commission to such a protectionist move, as well.

To put it simply, the move by the states to reach a unanimous agreement in respect to a gambling ban has failed and such a ban would have had to have been approved by the federal parliament. Things remain as they were.

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