German State Treaty on Gambling Clears Final Hurdle

The state parliament of Sachsen-Anhalt has ratified Germany’s Fourth Amendment on the State Treaty on Gambling, which will now officially come into force on July 1.

The treaty already had the necessary approval of 13 states, but approval from Saxony-Anhalt was essential to the legislation since the state is to host the regulatory agency that will supervise gambling law and operators’ conduct under the new regime.

It’s been almost a decade since Germany’s Bundesrat first agreed to the establishment of a federal regime for online gambling, but the process of passing legislation was held up by disagreements between Germany’s states over rules, licensing requirements, taxation and protections for state-level monopolies.

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Germany’s sports betting trade association DSWV welcomed the final ratification.

DSWV President Mathias Dahms said: “This is the beginning of a new age of gaming regulation in Germany. After sports betting, the federal states are now rightly regulating further online games of chance in order to finally control what is happening on the market.

“Consumers benefit from clarity and security: providers with a state seal of approval meet the highest standards of consumer and youth protection, gambling addiction and fraud prevention.”