Online casino gambling in Germany is prohibited under Interstate Treaty On Gambling

[Jim Henson]

Hi everyone,

I have been reading many updates on gambling rules and regulations in the German market. It stated that there is no difference in the regulation between operators located inside Germany and operators located outside, online casinos are forbidden under the Interstate Treaty, there is no licensing regime available for online casino operators.

My question is what happens to an affiliate advertising and displaying the title "the best online casinos accepting German players"? By doing that, are they breaching the laws? And what does the form of enforcement action take in the jurisdiction?

Many thanks

Jim Henson

 

[Sayindons]

Interesting, I have to check how the situation sitting now.

 

[Jim Henson]

Interesting, I have to check how the situation sitting now.

Gambling laws and regulations have been a headache to us as they keep changing. Share your experience with us. We can exchange the knowledge.

 

[ddm]

good questions / info ITT. Thanks OP
following

 

[Lucy CBC]

It's quite an important topic to follow....everyone bringing extra info to our attention is awesome!

 

[Roulette Zeitung]

For those programs, who want to have this new "real" German licence, the rules are very clear: No live games at all, not even RNG table games (Roulette, Blackjack, Baccarat ...), and the words "casino" and "casino games" are prohibited in their brands. This is the reason, why e.g. people from Germany will redirected from the "Casino Club" to "Slotclub" or from "888 Casino" to "slots.888wetten" ("Wetten" is the german word for "bets").

They want to have the name "Casino" exclusively for the real landbased casinos here in Germany.

888 is not using a single time the word "casino" anymore on the landingpage of their German version. They are talking about "online games", no longer "online casino games".

This is all very silly. Many online casinos with a license from Curacao don't care about the new German law and are still offering live games with the name "online casino" to German players.

Slots have a much higher addiction potential than live roulette or live blackjack, and the slots are fixed. So it's insane, that every program can now offer slots but not the serious live games. The reason for this new law was addiction protection.

Again: The real landbased casinos have big problems here. This is the reason for all of that. So they will now take everything which is live, into their hands. Online roulette will return, but operated by the government, no affiliates whatsoever.

Whether an affiliate can still use that "casino" slogans or not for the remaining RNG slots, bets and RNG shufffled Poker, this depends probably on the fearness of the programs. One can simply say: "Here are the best online games for casino players", then this cannot be wrong or violate anything in my opinion.

 

[Madars Pahmurkins]

What's the issues you've had with Income Access? How come you feel that they are crooks?

For those programs, who want to have this new "real" German licence, the rules are very clear: No live games at all, not even RNG table games (Roulette, Blackjack, Baccarat ...), and the words "casino" and "casino games" are prohibited in their brands. This is the reason, why e.g. people from Germany will redirected from the "Casino Club" to "Slotclub" or from "888 Casino" to "slots.888wetten" ("Wetten" is the german word for "bets").

They want to have the name "Casino" exclusively for the real landbased casinos here in Germany.

888 is not using a single time the word "casino" anymore on the landingpage of their German version. They are talking about "online games", no longer "online casino games".

This is all very silly. Many online casinos with a license from Curacao don't care about the new German law and are still offering live games with the name "online casino" to German players.

Slots have a much higher addiction potential than live roulette or live blackjack, and the slots are fixed. So it's insane, that every program can now offer slots but not the serious live games. The reason for this new law was addiction protection.

Again: The real landbased casinos have big problems here. This is the reason for all of that. So they will now take everything which is live, into their hands. Online roulette will return, but operated by the government, no affiliates whatsoever.

Whether an affiliate can still use that "casino" slogans or not for the remaining RNG slots, bets and RNG shufffled Poker, this depends probably on the fearness of the programs. One can simply say: "Here are the best online games for casino players", then this cannot be wrong or violate anything in my opinion.

Thank you for explanation, this is very interesting indeed! Will follow this tread closely.

 

[Jim Henson]

For those programs, who want to have this new "real" German licence, the rules are very clear: No live games at all, not even RNG table games (Roulette, Blackjack, Baccarat ...), and the words "casino" and "casino games" are prohibited in their brands. This is the reason, why e.g. people from Germany will redirected from the "Casino Club" to "Slotclub" or from "888 Casino" to "slots.888wetten" ("Wetten" is the german word for "bets").

They want to have the name "Casino" exclusively for the real landbased casinos here in Germany.

888 is not using a single time the word "casino" anymore on the landingpage of their German version. They are talking about "online games", no longer "online casino games".

This is all very silly. Many online casinos with a license from Curacao don't care about the new German law and are still offering live games with the name "online casino" to German players.

Slots have a much higher addiction potential than live roulette or live blackjack, and the slots are fixed. So it's insane, that every program can now offer slots but not the serious live games. The reason for this new law was addiction protection.

Again: The real landbased casinos have big problems here. This is the reason for all of that. So they will now take everything which is live, into their hands. Online roulette will return, but operated by the government, no affiliates whatsoever.

Whether an affiliate can still use that "casino" slogans or not for the remaining RNG slots, bets and RNG shufffled Poker, this depends probably on the fearness of the programs. One can simply say: "Here are the best online games for casino players", then this cannot be wrong or violate anything in my opinion.

The plan for the new Interstate Treaty will take place on 1 July 2021 with the legalization of online slots and poker. I guess the German try to empower the traffic source for their land-based casinos.

I also received the market withdrawal announcement email from Kindred Group for all of their casino brands out of the German market. Unibet might still be promoted in the market however all marketing of them must cease immediately. Instead, affiliates need to change and update the content to be sports-focused and use the term "Unibet Sports" or "Unibet Sports Betting" and LP of the tracking link to the sports-themed landing page.

Germany is really tightening the regulations and laws for online operators and affiliates.

Updates on the enforcement actions from our legal advisors: There is not yet any plan on ISPs blocking websites that advertising illegally on the German market. However, Unauthorised operations and distributions, as well as advertising for unauthorized games, maybe interdicted based on the Interstate Treaty on pain of fine which ranges from 10000 EUR TO 50000 EUR per circumvention.

 

[Roulette Zeitung]

"he plan for the new Interstate Treaty will take place on 1 July 2021 with the legalization of online slots and poker."

Not de jure but de facto, since 15. October 2020 the plan is already active. Most programs from Malta have obeyed to the new rules since that day.

"There is not yet any plan on ISPs blocking websites that advertising illegally on the German market."

We had so many silly plans to censor the internet like China or other European countries in the last decades, but after the Third Reich und the GDR it's not so easy to tell the people, that we are now the GDR 2.0,. which unfortunately we are. Free speech is no longer here since 4 years, all media is rigged to only one direction, we even have new criminal laws to muzzle the people, 100 % to brainwash the people. Books from uncomfortable people are banned like we did it in the past, when Hitler seized power on 30 January 1933 or later in the GDR. So only for your information. The Germany, you probably knew from 1946-2016, no longer exist.

But an ISP censorship will not be so easy, because the ISP companies themselves are against that and will fight that.

After the big giants, Google, Facebook, Twitter and Youtube have censored or shadow banned in the last 2 years thousands and thousands of voices, believe me, history will repeat, and my generation will be the last one, who can live in freedom of art and speech. Now even Disney mutates into a censorship machine. Latest your grandchildren will grow in a George Orwell world, the end of all freedom.

Again: The only reason for all of that is to terminate the live games competition. Germany is still the homeland of Roulette in Europe. Most people left the real landbased casinos to play online because it's easier, no costs for driving, and you can play whenever you want. They want to force the players to go back to the landbased casinos.

Funny, they are closed since months because of the Covid lockdown. So since 15. October 2020 Roulette player "legally" can not play online anymore and also not in the landbased casinos, because they are closed.

The black market with casinos like Dublin Bet, Energy, Betchain, some other Russian casinos, all with licenses from Curacao, is rising and will remain, because of the low deposit limit of 1.000 Euro for every German player total every month for all online casinos together. A new Stasi Office will be opened to monitor every German player and every transaction.

So forget the dream to catch any Highroller from Germany again due to the 1.000 Euro limit for all casinos together until you promote the "black market" casinos. If you found a new player, who has already deposited 950 Euro in other casinos in that month, then your revenue is good for only 50 Euro left.

GDR 2.0

 

[Alchemist]

One thing id on't get, What's with the word "casino"? Why it is not allowed? So loosing 1k in a day to online games, making different to loose it to casino slots? That's at least funny. @Roulette Zeitung since you are from Germany (i think) do you know the reason of the "casino" word being so bad?

 

[Roulette Zeitung]

They simply forgot to register and to protect the name "casino" here in Germany. Real landbased casinos have carried since the beginning of Roulette hundred years ago the name "Spielbank", a combination of "Spiel" (play) and "bank" (bank). The "bank" is the casino, holding the money. If you are losing at Roulette or Blackjack, the "bank" is winning here or losing, if you are lucky.

Only after the internet Roulette became popular and players are searching for "casino", the owners of the "Spielbanken" recognized, how big the competition in the internet is and what a big mistake it was to rest on its laurels from the last hundred years.

So they now had this idea to terminate the online competition, to prohibit every program which will apply for a German license to use the word "casino". If there is no online casino in the "casino" SERPS of Google, no online casino using the term "casino" in the brand anymore, then the chances are higher, that Roulette and Blackjack players come back to the "Spielbank", so their thinking.

It has nothing to do with player protection. Again, the slots are still "free" and they are really addictive.

Our "Spielbanken" are not working very well anymore. The good old days are over. Now they want to kill all competitors, the only reason for all of that. The allegedly player protection is only a pretext. If this would be true, the slots would be banned, not the live games.

 

[Alchemist]

Ohhhh they are pretty funny. I suppose they can't say: nah we are dead and there is no way to turn back from the dead . No matter what they will do, players will always play online. Same failed story as UKGC and US banning online gambling. Why you think they are now opening up again in US? Cause they understood how stupid they were. So for us in EU, we are even more stupid as we try to do the same US did in the past and failed.

 

[LsaissLai]

From what I can gather, it seems that there is no definitive answer to whether or not online casinos are illegal in Germany.

 

[WCB]

As I understand, Germany planned to start licensing and governing body more like UKGC, with the introduction of Self-Exclusion systems and IP Blocking software regulated by Hessen, attended a conference late last year, when a representative from Hessen promised to start licensing very quickly, but its been year and a half and only handful of Sportsbook licenses have been handed out. To me it seems like the political climate inside the country caused the process to be halted indefinitely. Seems like we are gonna be in confusing situation for a while in Germany

 

[ryannolan]

hello