More than 5,000 people have signed a petition in support of a fair state gambling law in the German state of Baden-Württemberg.
The petition, launched by the vending machine industry, opposes the planned shutdown of state-licensed gaming halls in Baden-Württemberg on June 30, in keeping with minimum-distance requirements around schools and youth facilities. By one estimate, the shutdown would affect 80 percent of gaming venues and threaten up to 8,000 jobs. The petition also supports legal online gambling.
Georg Stecker, spokesman for the board of directors of Deutsche Automatenwirtschaft eV, said: “It is absurd to regulate gambling halls with a ruler in the digital age, because online gaming has long since fundamentally changed the gaming market. Instead of antiquated regulation that destroys entrepreneurial livelihoods and thousands of jobs, we need modern regulation. A regulation that relies on qualitative criteria and thus actually strengthens youth and player protection. ”
Dirk Fischer, board member of the Automaten-Verband Baden-Württemberg eV added: “June 30 must not become the guillotine of legal games on offer in Baden-Württemberg. Our companies and their employees need a secure future. With the best will in the world, I don’t understand why proper, family-run businesses are being forced to close and thousands of people are being made unemployed because of arbitrary minimum intervals, while everyone will soon be able to legally play on their smartphones. On the bus, at home on the sofa or in the school yard. The great support for our petition in Baden-Württemberg and beyond shows me that this is incomprehensible to thousands of other people.”
