ONLINE GAMBLING - ARE SKILL GAMES THE GERMAN ENTRE?

30 November 2007

Seven German gambling cases now before the European Court of Justice


Skill games and entertainment portals could provide online operators looking to enter the German gaming market with viable opportunities according to leading German gaming lawyer Dr Wulf Hambach of Hambach & Hambach.

Speaking to conference organisers Bullet Business - who will soon host the Legal Gaming in Europe Summit - Hambach opined that Germany may be close to opening up the gaming market under pressure from the European Commission. However, he added that it was still important to note that due to the inconsistent and patchwork legal gambling system in Germany there remain liberal or non-regulated gambling sectors in the region such as skill games and other entertainment niches that do not fall under the scope of monopoly laws.

Dr Hambach went on to discuss the current situation with the German State Gambling Treaty 2008.

“The enforceability of the new State Gambling Treaty 2008 means that it is hard to predict what will happen in the German market over the next 12 months," said the legal expert. "With the EC and several political groups such as the Liberals opposing the gambling monopoly approach, my guess is that the state monopoly will continue to fight against the private gambling industry in the short-term but will lose the monopoly vs. liberalisation battle in the long-term."

Hambach proposed his own solution to speed up the transition, suggesting that the industry should be working on legal alternatives that are accepted not only by the national (German) courts but also by the EU-authorities. "In this regard, an EU cross border learning and working group should be founded with the help and integration of existing bodies such as the International Members of Gambling Law,” he said.

Dr Hambach will be covering German gaming law at the 2nd annual Legal Gaming in Europe Summit, speaking alongside expert European gaming lawyers, operators and industry leaders.

Martin Arendts from German law office Arendts Anwalte also highlighted the recent changes to gaming law in German on his blog site, writing:

“The Administrative Court of Giessen (Verwaltungsgericht Gießen) has referred two more sports betting cases (interdiction orders against betting shops, transferring bets to private bookmarks licensed in another EU member state) to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) according to Article 234 of the EC Treaty.

"Earlier this year, the court already referred a similar case to the ECJ (Markus Stoß v Wetteraukreis; Case C-316/07). The two new cases have been filed as Avalon Service-Online-Dienste GmbH v Wetteraukreis (Case C-409/07) and Olaf Amadeus Wilhelm Happel v Wetteraukreis (Case C-410/07).

"Seven German sports betting cases are now pending before the ECJ (one from Cologne, three each from Stuttgart and Giessen). As the Administrative Courts of Giessen and Stuttgart asked quite similar questions, it is quite likely that the ECJ will join these cases. A decision will probably be announced in two or three years.”

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