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Last Wednesday the Premiers of 16 German states met so that they could discuss whether an online gambling ban is in the best interests of their respective individual states. The ban’s purpose is to protect already existing state gambling monopolies. The Premiers were unable, however, to reach a unanimous decision on the ban, which would also have to be approved by the federal parliament even if the Premiers had agreed to it. Lucrative monopolistic lotteries are already in place in most of the German states, which is why these states are in favor of the ban. A ban on online gambling would help safeguard the revenues generated by the state lotteries. Some states, such as Bavaria, Hesse, and Saxony, already have state laws that prohibit online gambling. The laws outlawing online gambling were passed by these states after they decided that Bwin Interactive, an Australian public company, had infringed upon state monopolistic law. If the federal parliament were to pass a ban on online gambling, Germany would likely find itself at odds with the European Commission, which favors the liberalization of the European gambling market. On the other hand, most German local and national governments are in favor of the ban because it would help preserve state lottery and gambling monopolies. Bwin Interactive, was pleased that the decision had been postponed. “This decision is a very sensible one,” said Steffen Pfennigwerth, owner of Bwin in Germany. “The states will now have sufficient time to develop a legal framework for the German betting market in accordance with European law and the constitution," he said. Bwin has been actively campaigning for more liberal European gambling policies and even filed a complaint against France’s gaming laws. According to Bwin Interactive, France’s online gaming laws directly conflict with the principles of open competition laid out by the EC Treaty. If the European Court of Justice does find in favor of Bwin’s complaint against France, the ruling would ultimately be applied to all European countries including Germany. If that is the case, the German states will have to change their online gambling laws. According to German press reports, the state of Schleswig-Holstein was primarily responsible for the defeat of the ban, while the 15 remaining states were “agreeable” in principal to the ban. To carry the motion, a unanimous vote was needed to ratify the proposed legislation. In the meantime then, the attempt to get legislation that would ban online gambling placed before the federal parliament has failed for now, meaning that Germany’s current position on online gambling will remain unchanged. Posted on: December 15, 2006
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