HAMBURG, Germany--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Roughly a year ago, Germany was all controversy surrounding the “State Treaty on Online Gaming “, and while 15 or so states of Germany decided to adopt these new laws last year in July, Schleswig-Holstein has now openly gone against the Treaty.
The treaty sought to ban brick and mortar casinos and only allow a limited number of online sports betting licences. The German state of Schleswig-Holstein has now accepted 12 new online gambling licences, which brings the total number of licences within the state up to 27. The other fifteen licences belong to sportsbook licences, so this will be the first online gambling licences held in the state.
Of the new licences that were issued last month, a few names should be familiar to anyone who has been a part of the online gambling industry for a while. Names that took licences included 888 Holdings, Betfair, Bet-at-home, Mybet, Cashpoint, Online Casino Germany, bwin.party, PokerStars, Ladbrokes, Skill On Net, Tipico and bet365 through their own personal subsidiary REEL Germany Limited.
What makes this all fascinating to many key players in the online casino industry, including http://www.casinodino.com is that this was a very sudden change of heart. Last year in July it was Schleswig-Holstein that was claiming they wanted to repeal their own Land’s Gambling and stated they were ready and willing to sign the Treaty. In 2012 the EGBA (European Gaming and Betting Association) made a complaint to the EC (European Commission) claiming that the European Union laws were being violated with the new proposed Treaty. Additionally many of the German states continue to play host to online casinos that serve the German public as a way of making a statement against the Treaty’s laws.
To top things off, one of the new casino licence holders “MyBet”, were given a warning by the state within a day of being given its gambling license. When confronted by the local Kieler Nachrichte newspaper, the CEO of MyBet, a Mr. Mathias Dahms said “We believed that we could use the license immediately for all of Germany.” His reaction was naturally due to the letter sent him which informed him he could only provide an online gaming service to the residents of the Schleswig-Holstein state.