German trade body urges less rigid online gambling regulations
DSWV claims transitional regulations are required to ensure online casino channelisation
The German Sports Betting Association (DSWV) has called for greater flexibility in forthcoming German regulations for online casino and sports betting operators, claiming a lack of such standards will aid the black market.
DSWV president Mathias Dahms claimed that a regulated gambling market must be attractive enough to “stand up” to black-market providers.
“A rigid set of rules that cannot be changed in the next few years will neither help player protection nor lead to squeezing the black market that will continue to exist in the future,” Dahms added.
Dahms hailed the revised and amended Interstate Treaty on Gambling as the first step in creating a modern German gambling market, claiming the previous ban on online casino has proven “ineffective” and easily circumvented.
However, Dahms also claimed that in rushing to make compromises and agree the Treaty in principle, the German Lander had created “structural and undesirable” developments that could prove challenging once the market goes live.
Furthermore, live betting and match-fixing were highlighted by the DSWV as being among those challenges which have still to be resolved.
All 16 German states agreed to adopt the latest amended Interstate Treaty on Gambling in January, with the Treaty legalising online casino in Germany for the first time.
In addition, the Treaty provides for the continuation of the German sports betting market beyond July 2021.
The DSWV has also said that the new nationwide regulatory entity, which will govern gambling across the whole of Germany, should be given the freedom to adapt regulations “flexibly and promptly” as technology changes.
The DSWV has also called for transitional regulation of the online casino market to effectively ensure channelisation towards licensed operators occurs when the market goes live.
“It would make sense to seamlessly transfer the existing offers into the new regulatory system,” Dahms said.
“Certified and reliable sports betting providers should not have to switch off their gaming products by 2021 and leave them to the black-market providers.
“In the meantime, customers will not stop playing and should prefer to be able to do so in a protected area of reliable providers,” Dahms added.
DSWV members include bet365, William Hill, Sky Bet, Flutter Entertainment and Kindred Group, as well as local German operators Tipico and Interwetten.