Germany to Ban Online Gambling

January 9th

Online gambling will be banned in Germany as of Jan. 1 after German states ratified an accord that preserves the country's state monopoly for lotteries and most forms of betting.

At least 13 of Germany's 16 states have submitted the ratification documents, Eric Braum, a spokesman for the Hesse government, which monitors the process, said in an interview today. ``That's the required majority and we expect to have all the rest coming in by New Year's Eve.''

All 16 state legislatures voted by mid-December to approve the new online-betting laws, which the states negotiated after the Federal Constitutional Court ruled in 2006 that the former model was unconstitutional. The new rules, which expire at the end of 2011.

The new rules ban any form of Web-based gambling or brokering of games over the Internet. The states may order Internet service providers to block Web sites of illegal betting operations and banks to stop money transfers to them. The rules' definition of illegal gaming includes placing a bet from German territory over the Web with a company based outside Germany.

The regulations also will outlaw advertising of gaming over the Internet and on television. Advertising in print and other media may no longer ``directly invite, incite or prompt'' customers to play; it may only ``inform'' about the possibility to do so.

The European Commission, the European Union's Brussels- based regulator, called on Germany to reconsider the total ban on online betting, saying the step was disproportional. In April, Germany rejected that demand, arguing the rules are needed to protect citizens from the dangers of gambling.

``I am pretty sure the commission will escalate the process and send a formal warning the day after'' the new law takes effect, Wolfgang Kubicki, leader of the FDP opposition party in Schleswig-Holstein's Parliament, said in an interview on Dec. 20. ``Berlin will have something in the mail on Jan. 3.''

The commission can sue EU member states to force them to comply with EU law.