Casumo introduces player fee for gamers from DE...

[dArkjON]

Hey Guys today i recieved a Email from Casumo that they introduces a new player fee for all German Player.

In short, every Spin from now will cost 5,3% extra as taxation 1€ Spin reduce the Balance for 1.06€

Casumo Link German FAQ at last point ->

You do not have permission to view link Log in or register now.

1.
What is the gaming fee?
As of July 1, 2021, a new regulation regarding the taxation of online slot machines in Germany has come into effect, which obliges us to charge a fee in the amount of 5.3% on all real money stakes of players who play on our site from Germany.
Therefore, with immediate effect, we are introducing the 5.3% gaming fee on all real money wagers, on casumo.com/en/. We have made this decision after very careful consideration and believe that this is the best way for us to continue to provide you with a unique gaming experience.
2.
How is the game fee calculated?
Each time you wager real money on a virtual slot game, an additional amount of 5.3% is charged to you and deducted from your account, which is rounded up to the nearest whole number in cents. For example, if you place a bet of €1 in a game, an additional game fee of €0.06 will be charged to your balance in addition to the initial game bet of €1.
The fee will be deducted from your account balance and can be viewed in your transaction history.
Example:
On top of your real money bet of €1, there is an additional game fee of 5.3%, which is rounded up to the nearest whole number in cents - in this case, your customer account will be debited with one euro and six cents (€1.06). The stake remains one (1) euro.
3.
Where can I see the game fees I have paid?
You can find the exact list of your stakes and the calculated game fee in your account under "History".

 

[thr0b]

What do they do with the rounded amount? Credit it back when it reaches a whole number?

 

[Lemon]

What do they do with the rounded amount? Credit it back when it reaches a whole number?

You'd like to think so wouldn't you? I'd love to see some graphs and stuff that show the difference in revenue between June and July - I would imagine it was pretty noticeable and the gap might get wider over the forthcoming months once reality sets in. My goodness the German market is hostile now. You'd need to have a serious gambling problem to put up with these conditions.

We all moan here in the UK about the ongoing changes but when you line them up against Germany's new legislation it's not the end of the world.

 

[Slottery]

That's really nice tax to introduce and there will be different approaches from casinos that applied for German licenses.

It wouldn't surprise if "black market" would get quite big market share from German players as some of these regulations are not really player friendly either and they wanted casinos who apply license to follow their regulations already somewhere from last year even licenses came active now in July.

When players max deposit limit is €1,000/month (accumulated across all brands of the operator/license), 5 sec between spins, 1€ max bet per spin, cross-selling not allowed as marketing (ie. send try to promote slots for sport bettors) and loads of other funny things and of course license fees and "normal" taxes (that 5.3% came as bit surprise IIRC).

So far there haven't been big run to "black market" from any country yet who have regulated themselves with their own licenses but German could be something where i actually could see it happen, there are so many of these small things which can make operating there quite expensive, of course amount of operators there will reduce which gives more players for them who operate there unless players get pissed to these regulations and different extra fees added by casinos and start to play in sunny Curacao.

Currently there still are some MGA casinos who do accept German players until getting strong enough legal threat from regulator but not gonna last for ever, then it's choice between German or "black market" regulations, not really great options on table for players (just guessing but wouldn't expect many operators offering ie. max RTP:s in German and this kind of little costs will be somehow added, this Casumo way or some other).

 

[cncas2123]

What do they do with the rounded amount? Credit it back when it reaches a whole number?

If they dont then its going to make a big difference to their profits as they will effectively be taking an extra .7% margin on every single bet of 1 euro. Easy money for them, absolutely risk free.
I wonder how that lies legally as the 5.3% is a tax and they are effectively adding a further tax.

 

[thr0b]

If they dont then its going to make a big difference to their profits as they will effectively be taking an extra .7% margin on every single bet of 1 euro. Easy money for them, absolutely risk free.
I wonder how that lies legally as the 5.3% is a tax and they are effectively adding a further tax.

Legally it's probably fine - they're telling you upfront that you will be paying the tax at 5.3% and they will be taking an extra 0.7%. Up to you if you continue - essentially that extra percentage is a service fee. I can see why they're doing it this way - would be more sensible if the government had set the tax at a whole percentage.

 

[Downsman]

Government & sensible..those words clash somewhat!!

 

[Davey86]

Max bet set at €1.00 but then every single spin costs €1.06? Defeats the max bet rule but it’s ok because it’s a tax?

 

[dArkjON]

The maximum bet for German players is €1 per spin as of July 1. With a 5.3% tax, this would result in a tax of 0.053€.
However, the tax office only works with whole cent amounts, so 6 cents in this case. Nothing should be left over there.

I just logged back into Casumo for the first time in a while and selected 3 random slots and looked at the RPTs.
According to German law, the RPT's must now be specified in more detail and I was shocked what there were for numbers...

Game | default RTP | Casumo DE RTP (Spins for max Win)
Chicken Drop | 96,50% | 89,48% (220409 Spins for 5000x) -6% = 83,48%
Gates of Olympus | 96,50% | 89,51% (819.672 Spins for 5000x) -6% = 83,51%
Sweet Bonanza | 96,60 % | 89,62% (50.000.000 Spins for 2500x) -6% = 83,62%
The Dog house | 96,51% | 89,54% (100.000.000 Spins for 4000x) -6% =83,54%
Book of Dead | 96,21 % | 87.25 (100.000.000 Spins for 7529x) -6% =81,25%

The way I see it, Casumo has some of the worst RTP rates available to players, + an extra tax on each bet they charge on the Player.
Either I use proper RTP settings and tax the customer, or I compensate the tax by using lower RTP settings as a casino.

But taking the lowest RPT settings and then charging customers an extra fee sounds like a rip-off to me.

 

[dunover]

Jesus! So effectively your RTP on a 96% slot has gone from house edge 4% to 9.3%!!

Each spin costs 1.053 euros for a 96c average return. That's punitive.

It effectively smashes your playtime for any given deposit as for example 100 euros would return 96e normally and allow 2476 spins until bust, whereas now it's 1065 spins average. Or 43.01% of the playtime you had before this insidious tax was introduced.

And that's without rounding it up to 6% in which case it's 991 spins or 40.01% of previous playtime.

Fuck me sideways.

 

[thr0b]

Well, the RTP isn't affected by the tax. Not as such, anyway. The RTP is still shite, mind.

 

[dArkjON]

Well, the RTP isn't affected by the tax. Not as such, anyway. The RTP is still shite, mind.

Indirectly, the RTP is certainly influenced since I pay more stake but the profit does not increase.
100 Spins x 1€ Chicken Drop with RTP 89,48% in the best case = 89,48€ - 100 * 0,06€ = 83,48€

Funny thing is that it also reduces the monthly limit... as a German player I am only allowed to deposit 1.000€ per month in online casinos.

Normally I play with a stake of 0,25€ / 1000€ Limit = 4000 Spins / 30 Days = 133,33 Spins daily
With the new Tax Fee ive to pay 0,27€ / 1000€ Limit = 3703,7 / 30 Days = 123,45 Spins daily

 

[dunover]

Well, the RTP isn't affected by the tax. Not as such, anyway. The RTP is still shite, mind.

No, the intrinsic value of the slot maths doesn't change, I'm equating the financial effect on the player in terms of the equivalent RTP and play time.

 

[dArkjON]

The math of the slot doesn't change of course, but the Return to Player RTP is 5.3% lower as in a casino which doesn't charge the player extra.

 

[syntynyt]

Considering the state of landbased in there this is only a natural expansion of shafting the player even more. There you can put in a machine a maximum of 10 eur at once from which you start with 2.30 and the remaining 7.70 goes in 20c increase up to another 2.30 and you need to move it from a 'cashier' to balance and so on. This ensures that you never recover if you put 50 for the day unless you gamble every win in what felt like 80% RTP. Remember old netents where you could never be at starting balance once ~150x has been lost let alone exceed it? Thats the german market for ya, even worse online it seems. Add to it random reality checks of 5 to 25 minutes and the game becoming a moneypit after, also its illegal to offer hall jackpots, theres some built in jackpot shit in merkur, novo and wolff that if anything further reduces the RTP. That market is d e a d.

 

[slot_zombie]

Book Of Dead on 81% payout. It's like some sort of bad nightmare. Commiserations.

I can't see that tax lasting long, nor anyone but the most hardened German slot addict continuing to play on those terms.

I don't know the full details, but Aspire Global have apparently launched something called BuyWin which exploits a loophole to avoid the tax.

You do not have permission to view link Log in or register now.

 

[Frankey78]

To protect the players there is also a 1000 euro deposit limit per month in online casinos. Not for each, it's for all. That and the 1euro per Spin is to prevent me from getting addicted or fall into a dept trap. But I still can go in a Landcasino and bet 1000 euro or more on black Jack or roulette each Spin. From 12 casinos I loved to play I'm now down to 3 since July 3. The last was just yesterday. Twin casino. Saturday I won there 380euro, Monday it was bye bye

 

[Betreels Casino & Sports]

Are they also deducting the tax from affiliate commission? I.e. double dipping.

 

[Frankey78]

I don't think so. Or at least it's not called a tax. They really good at making up new words

 

[Paimonah]

The TAX is at N1 Casinos too:

"A player accepts and acknowledges that any tax due on winnings shall be paid by them. We retain the right to subtract from your cashout all the gambling related fees and taxes that may be applicable based on your gaming activity according to the laws of the jurisdiction of your residence. All deposits need to be wagered x3 before withdrawal"