NRW state parliament passes online casino gaming law
Created: 02/17/2022, 19:37
The lectern of the state parliament can be seen on a monitor in the grandstand.
©Oliver Berg/dpa
NRW exhausts the legal framework of the State Treaty on Gambling and now also allows online casinos.
The opposition sees the protection of minors and players at risk and fears an increase in the potential for addiction.
Düsseldorf - In North Rhine-Westphalia, the approval of online casino games has now been legally regulated.
The Düsseldorf state parliament passed a corresponding law on Thursday evening.
Accordingly, a maximum of five licenses may be granted to different providers in NRW.
A state monopoly was renounced.
CDU and FDP voted for the amendment on Thursday;
SPD and Greens voted against, the AfD abstained.
From the point of view of all three opposition factions, the law does not meet the requirements for the protection of minors and players.
Addiction prevention is "criminal neglected".
North Rhine-Westphalia Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU) countered: “The law has been notified to the EU Commission.
No objections were raised.” From the point of view of the state government, the discussions in the state parliament committees “did not reveal any fundamental problems with the bill”.
Last July, a new state gambling treaty came into force in Germany and basically gave the green light for online casinos.
However, the design of the regulation is the responsibility of the federal states.
They determine whether, by whom and in what form online casino games may be organised.
A total ban would also have been possible.
However, the state government is concerned with channeling demand and getting it out of the illegal market, said MPs from the CDU and FDP.
So players are better protected from addiction, fraud and manipulation.
The opposition, however, doubts that.
In fact, the law is generous to the providers, criticized the SPD MP Elisabeth Müller-Witt.
“Players should be lured or kept with the prospect of quick profit.”
The Green MP Arndt Klocke said that the state department for gambling addiction warns that the potential for addiction increases when such offers are available online.
The Greens called for bonuses and online discounts for online games to be banned and for advertising to be more restrictive.
AfD MP Andreas Keith demanded: "No advertising time for online casinos."
The law defines which games are covered - such as roulette, blackjack and baccarat - but not online poker and virtual machine gambling games.
It also introduces an online casino tax based on gross gaming revenue and regulates player protection and supervisory measures.
The SPD is calling for this tax to be used to finance an independent, interdisciplinary institute for research into gambling addiction.
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FDP MP Angela Freimuth warned against treating oral consumers "like idiots who don't know what they're getting into".
"Gambling has been around for at least 5,000 years," said the free democrat.
The regulations will make things more transparent and fairer, while the market was previously a "gambling El Dorado without security and player protection" dominated primarily by foreign providers.
"Justitia was blindfolded - Fortuna mostly too."
Last year, NRW sold its state-owned casino company Westspiel for around 142 million euros to the Gauselmann gaming group from Espelkamp.
Reul assured that the licenses for online casinos would be awarded in a transparent process for a period of ten years.
In principle, the online games may only be made accessible to persons who have their place of residence or habitual abode in the sovereign territory of North Rhine-Westphalia.
The supervision, which is equipped with comprehensive powers, is anchored in his ministry.
dpa