Way out of illegal gambling?
Casino manager insists on more gaming freedom
06/07/2023, 16:07
The gambling industry is highly regulated – online and offline. But that doesn’t always lead to the desired result, as the CFO of the East Westphalian medium-sized company Gauselmann complains in the podcast “So techt Deutschland”. Does less regulation mean less illegal gambling?
Since 2021, a new state gambling treaty has regulated what is and is not allowed in online casinos. Because gambling on the net was already there before – just illegally. However, Lars Felderhoff does not believe that the legal framework is sufficient to get all players out of the black market: “Unfortunately, the legislator failed to pass a regulation that allows competitiveness”, criticizes the CFO of the East Westphalian gaming company Gauselmann in the ntv podcast ” So techt Germany” mainly disadvantages compared to illegal offers.
“There is no type of player tracking,” says Lars Felderhoff.
(Photo: Gauselmann)
Among other things, the gambling entrepreneur is bothered by the monthly limit of 1,000 euros that players are allowed to use as a maximum. Not enough, says Felderhoff. For some players, attractiveness means having the opportunity to play “higher stakes” and thus have “greater chances of winning”. And when the legal limits are exhausted, bets are placed on illegal portals.
According to surveys, 40 percent of Germans took part in gambling at least once last year. More than 400,000 people in Germany are considered addicted or at least have problematic gambling behavior. Measured against the total number of players, however, this is only a small proportion, the operators of arcades regularly argue.
Is the legislature also partly to blame for the addiction figures? It is said that it has long been technologically possible to monitor gaming behavior in stationary arcades and to intervene at an early stage. The devices in the arcades are networked, but “there is no type of player tracking,” says Felderhoff. That is not allowed. Instead, the operators are left only with the admission control, which can only be used to check whether someone is already blocked.
“We have very strict regulations, some of which are intended to protect players and some are legal,” explains the Gauselmann manager. For example, no ATMs should be set up and paying with a credit card is also not possible in order to prevent excessive gambling.
In the new episode of “So techt Deutschland”, Lars Felderhoff explains how game development is possible despite everything, what is different abroad and where the future of gambling lies in a digitized world.
In “So techt Deutschland” the ntv moderators Frauke Holzmeier and Andreas Laukat ask founders, investors, politicians and entrepreneurs how things are with Germany as a technology location. All episodes can be found in the ntv app, at RTL+ music, Apple Podcasts, Spotify and in the RSS feed. Also at Amazon Music and Google Podcasts you will find it.