Three respected German professors recently released the 300-page “Fact-based Evaluation of the Interstate Treaty on Gambling,” which studied the controversial treaty’s impact on sports integrity, customer protection and tax revenues and gave Germany a failing grade. Professor Justus Haucap, director of the Dusseldorf Institute for Competition Economics, Professor Martin Nolte, director of the Institute for Sports Integrity at the German School of Sports in Cologne and Professor Heino Stöver, a social sciences professor at the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences, used economic, legal an sociological methodologies to assess the legislation’s success and impact.
The study’s “Channelisation Index” indicated Germany came in last compared to other countries in the percentage of players accessing regulated gambling products—a direct result of Germany’s harsh online gaming regulations.
In addition, the study indicated Germany was missing opportunities in the sports-betting industry to fund and support sports integrity initiatives. Nolte said the country’s current integrity legislation has gone “completely beyond the reality” of sports betting. Haucap stated, “Only when online gambling is legalized can the state achieve a number of goals: protecting players, combating gambling addiction and preventing the manipulation of sports. This is exactly where the current legislation fails, along so many lines.”
The German Sports-betting Association and other lobbyists hope the study will urge politicians to introduce more practical regulations for the industry.
Meanwhile, the German state of Schleswig-Holstein’s new coalition government says it will break from Germany’s State Treaty on Gambling and conduct and independent—and more liberal—set of gambling regulations.
Recent elections in Schleswig-Holstein failed to produce a single majority party. That led to the forming of a complex coalition involving the Christian Democratic Union, the Free Democratic Party and the Green Party. The government has been dubbed the “Jamaica coalition” since the colors associated with the three parties are the same in the national flag of Jamaica.
The coalition released its fiscal policy positions which included a statement that Schleswig-Holstein intends to be independent on gambling legislation.
German media reported that the coalition intends to team with the state governments in North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate and Hesse on a new regulatory scheme “based on the rules of the Schleswig-Holstein law valid until 2013.”
The state did not enter into the 2012 State Treaty on gambling, which has repeatedly run afoul of European Union courts and enacted its own gambling policies. The announcement reaffirms that position and suggests a new plan involving the four mentioned states will emerge.
