Et is a divided world that has long operated on the fringes and in the midst of illegality – and which should now be calm. But a good six months after the federal states legalized online gambling under certain conditions with the new State Treaty on Gambling, there is little sign of calm in the gambling world. Instead, the old trench warfare continues as before. The new laws and responsibilities tend to make the conflicts even more complicated and confused. And instead of directing online poker and virtual slot machines into legal channels, the opposite seems to be happening.
A new state gambling treaty has been in force since last summer, which is seen as a turning point: for the first time in Germany, it was permitted to gamble for money on the Internet. The reasoning is very similar to the legalization of cannabis that the traffic light coalition is planning: no longer prohibit what millions of Germans are doing anyway, leaving them in the defenselessness of the black market, but release the vice under conditions and state control. The aim is to steer unsafe consumption into legal channels. This is also called channeling. And there is a lot to channel, the turnover from online gambling has so far been almost three billion euros a year, estimates the European Gambling and Betting Association EGBA.