The Court of Justice for the European Union has ruled against Germany’s restrictive online gaming laws.
Though the ruling applied to the country’s online sports-betting laws, however, it is expected the ruling will lead to the overturning of other online gaming regulations, including for online poker.
According to Pokerfuse, in September 2011, the German state of Schleswig-Holstein passed a law allowing online poker with no restrictions on the number of licensed operators that could be approved by the state. However, just three months later, 15 of the 16 German states approved the German Interstate Treaty on Gambling which made online poker illegal under the law of those states. The Treaty also banned online casino games while allowing for a set number of online sports betting licenses to be issued.
The EU court ruling finds that Germany’s sports-betting law is incompatible with EU law and the country will likely have to revisit its online laws.
In October Judge Advocate General Maciej Szpunar issued an opinion warning that the country is required to rewrite gaming laws that are in contradiction to that of European Union legislation.
“Further to a judgment of the Court from which it can be inferred that a national law is not compatible with EU law, all organs of a Member State concerned are under an obligation to remedy that situation,” Judge Advocate General Szpunar said.
