Gambling News by Gambling Headquarters

Germany's federal states plan to ban Internet gambling, according to draft documents to be discussed by the country's state premiers on Wednesday. Reports in the German media are suggesting that Germany's states will meet this week to outline plans for banning Internet gambling in the country. Despite pressure from the European Commission to open up Europe's gambling market to competition, ministers from most states want to sign off on new rules aimed at protecting their lucrative monopoly as lottery operators, said Handelsblatt. German lottery company Fluxx AG has joined fellow online compatriots Tipp24 AG in saying that it may have to abandon its native market if the country's 16 states pass a new law effectively banning private operators. Fluxx's CFO Stefan Haenel said that the company would not give up on Germany without a fight, but warned that it would be going to 'use opportunities' outside the country. It was also reported that the mainly private firms, such as Tipp24 and Fluxx, would be granted a one-year transition period. The ministers will meet in Berlin on Wednesday morning. The state of Saxony and two other states imposed a ban earlier this year on commercial betting. That was directed mainly at Austrian Internet betting firm bwin.com whose German unit is the country's biggest commercial bookmaker. Bwin and its peers are facing increasingly stringent regulations in the United States and Europe, where governments are curbing Internet gambling to protect customers and state-run lotteries. The European Union's commissioner for internal markets and services has already said that the current German state monopoly breaches EU law and said that the government needs to pass laws that apply to everyone, both private companies and state-run gambling operations, equally.