The city of Bremen, Germany has closed betting shops all over town, citing money-laundering concerns. The industry is hitting back hard.
More than 30 betting shops had their licenses for online sports betting rejected by the city. Bremen officials said they believe the mob is using legal betting shops to launder money from drug deals.
Bremen Senator for Internal Affairs, Ulrich Mäurer, told the Weser-Kurier “At its core, this is about checking the reliability of these operators.” The Senator added, “We also want to guarantee that no money from dodgy businesses like drug dealing or human trafficking is being laundered here and thus flows into legal money cycles.”
The city has asked betting shops to provide documentation on how they obtained startup funds—which many did not do. Other licenses were rejected for proximity to a school.
This has prompted a heated response from the German Sports Betting Association (DSMV), which called the rejection of licenses, “politically motivated.” It claims the municipal officials are attacking the industry to shift attention away from other domestic issues.
DSMV President Mathias Dahms said in a statement: “The members of the German Sports Betting Association have nationwide permits as organizers of sports betting,” adding, “The reliability of the providers was put through their paces and, of course, the legal origin of their equipment was also proven.”
Dahms said that documentation for the operators’ financial resources were provided and confirmed. He declared, “A clean, rule-of-law approach looks different. The fact that, after months without any response from the authorities, all 32 applications for permits were suddenly rejected on the same day suggests that this is an arbitrary, legally questionable and completely disproportionate act that only serves to achieve political goals. This has nothing to do with proper administrative procedures.”
The DSMV has been at loggerheads with German lawmakers for some time. It has emphasized the threat of black market operators to the legal gaming market and accused the new regulator, Glücksspielbehörde der Länder (GGL), of not being equipped to fight the threat.
