State Treaty on Gambling: Are online casinos now legal?

The confusion about the legal situation of online casinos in Germany is great. Is gambling legal and if not, then why are there still so many providers on the net who also regularly place advertising blocks on television?

The confusion about the legal situation of online casinos in Germany is great. Is gambling legal and if not, why are there still so many providers on the net who also regularly place advertising blocks on television?
The ban on the organisation of public games of chance is regulated in the First State Treaty amending the Gambling Act, which came into force on 1 July 2012. With one exception, all federal states have submitted to this treaty.

State Treaty on Gaming as the basis for gambling

Gambling on the net is popular, but there is always a lot of uncertainty among the players. Is it all legal and if not, what happens to any winnings? The best online casinos today are easy for gamblers to find on sites like bestencasinos.info. All popular providers including their special offers, bonuses, and game offerings are neatly listed here.

Gamblers should know on a legal level that the organization of public gambling is regulated in the First State Treaty amending the Gambling Act. This came into force on 1 July 2012 and regulates the following games, among others, with regard to gambling:

Federal states could soon issue their own licences again

The legal situation is not only unsatisfactory for the governing parties of the countries, but also for the players. Over the years, this has resulted in declining gross gaming revenues from online casino games. According to the chart above, gross gaming revenues from online poker declined continuously from 2013 to 2017.

It was still 192.1 million Euro in 2013, 123 million Euro two years later and only 118 million Euro in 2017. How the legal situation will develop further is still uncertain at the present time. The deadline for a potential agreement between the federal states expires at the end of 2019 and there are already federal states that are pushing for independent licensing:

Hesse
North Rhine-Westphalia
Rhine-Palatinate

The deadline is set out in the coalition agreement concluded in Hesse, which provides for a comprehensive overhaul of gambling. If the deadline is missed, the states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate will probably follow Hesse’s lead. Then a lot of online licenses – even those whose application was made long ago – will be issued directly.