A German court has become the latest judicial body to weigh in on the interminable poker ‘skill v. luck’ debate, and the results have left the country’s poker players with mixed feelings. The case began when German tax authorities ordered pro player Eduard Scharf to ante up some back taxes on his poker winnings, which they determined to be business income. Seeking to take advantage of a law that exempts moneys earned via games of chance from taxation, Scharf somewhat ingenuously claimed his skills meant little to the outcomes of games and tournaments, as “anybody can win a game of poker.” On Wednesday, The Local reported that the Finance Court Cologne had ruled that Scharf’s talents definitely influenced the outcome of his poker play, making his winnings easy prey for the taxman’s greedy clutches. However, non-professional poker player winnings will still be considered tax-exempt. It’s not known whether Scharf plans an appeal.
German regulators have also delivered a blow to the nation’s poker players via an order for online operators that have applied for a federal sports betting license to immediately cease offering poker and casino games the instant said license is granted. Those companies that are awarded one of the 20 federal licenses up for grabs will also have to guarantee that no “company which is connected to them” will try an end-around of this restriction. While regulators issued no specific directive to cease offering poker or casino products while applications are pending, it’s equally unclear whether failure to do so would negatively affect an applicant’s chances. GamblingCompliance reports that approximately 90 firms are believed to have progressed to the final stage of the application process. The tender officially closes Dec. 20.
One applicant that won’t be shutting off the poker and casino taps anytime soon is bwin.party. On a conference call Friday with analysts following the company’s disappointing Q3 figures, bwin.party co-CEO Norbert Teufelberger insisted the company had a “legal right” to offer poker and casino products to German punters, despite the German government’s assertions to the contrary. The fact that bwin.party derives a full quarter of its total revenues from Germany may have played a teensy role in convincing Teufelberger that he is a better interpreter of German law than the people who wrote those laws. (Much as in Belgium, where bwin.party’s response to being put on the Belgian Gaming Commission’s blacklist for operating without a license was to redirect Belgian punters to a mirror site.) Teufelberger even stated that the heretofore uncooperative German authorities will eventually bend to bwin.party’s will “because we are the biggest player there.” Teufelberger appears to believe that in bwin.party’s absence, German punters will simply stop gambling – you know, just like when US poker players stopped playing altogether after PartyPoker quit the market in 2006.
