Europe’s gaming industry firms are breathing a sigh of relief after the European Commission (EC) issued serious concerns over a German state gambling industry treaty. The EC’s worry relates to it not being compatible with EU law in its current state and they’re concerned by a number of different factors. As they’ve stressed on previous occasions, the measures should be “transparent” as well as “non-discriminatory”. It relates to the preferential treatment of state gaming providers and links to worries about whether enough operators will be attracted to do business.
15 of Germany’s 16 federal states have signed the State Treaty on gaming with the other state, Schleswig-Holstein (S-H), offering a solution that most favor. Owners of myBet, JAXX SE, are one of these.
“We submitted the licence application for myBet in Kiel and look forward to doing business again soon in Germany. We urge the other federal states to take a look at Schleswig-Holstein’s legislation: it is modern, satisfies European standards and above all has received the blessing of a conclusively favourable opinion by the EU Commission,” said Mathias Dahms, Management Board spokesman.
The gambling industry legislation in S-H survived an attempt at its life just last month but it managed to pass the challenge by a single vote. The same margin saw the controversial law pass in September and social democrats were behind the most recent plans to hijack it so that S-H would have to fall in line.
JAXX, along with around 80 others, have already applied for licences in the “rogue” state and it’s expected they might start to offer services as early as next month. As for the other 15 lander, it’s very much back to the drawing board and unless any significant changes are made the EC won’t be approving their Treaty.
Betfair and Pwin will be breathing a sigh of relief at the news in a market the two have become increasingly reliant on. The stock market hasn’t reacted and isn’t likely to but the fact the EU doesn’t like the State Treaty will be music to both firm’s ears.
