The gaming sector is facing a profound change: With the entry into force of the new State Treaty on Gaming, the advertising sector is also facing an overdue liberalization. From July 2021, providers of online casinos and poker as well as virtual slot machine games can also receive a gaming license in Germany. With the entry into force of the new State Treaty on Gaming on July 1, 2021, the offering of virtual slot machine games, online poker, and 우리카지노 should be permitted. This initiates the urgently needed channeling of players into a secure and monitored online gaming market.

Circular resolution of the heads of the state chancelleries of the federal states

To shape the transitional regime until the GlüStV 2021 comes into force, the heads of the state chancelleries of the federal states initiated a so-called circular resolution in September 2020. The decision announced that when enforcing the gaming supervision, it would concentrate on providers who could foresee that they would also want to evade future regulation. With the circular resolution, sports betting providers were obliged to implement the technically possible precautions according to GlüStV 2021 by October 15, 2020. This primarily concerns requirements in the area of ​​player protection and combating gambling addiction. On this date, only offers in the area of ​​sports betting, online casinos, online poker, and virtual slot machine games should be offered that would also be permitted under the new GlüStV 2021. The corresponding behavior of the providers from the date mentioned will be decisive for the future assessment of the reliability of these from July 2021. In addition to this, the top gaming supervisory authorities of the federal states have established additional requirements with regard to offers in the area of ​​online poker and virtual slot machine games with so-called common guidelines. In addition to requirements such as an individual bet limit, “reality checks” were also prescribed after an hour. As of October 15, 2020, the use of the term “casino” was also prohibited for virtual slot machine games. Stricter requirements for offering online casino games were set for the period from mid-December 2020. From this point on, the minimum period of a game was also to be extended to five seconds and the maximum stake per game was limited to one euro.

Allocation of sports betting concessions

In October 2020, after another break of several months, the responsible regional council of Darmstadt ended some licensing procedures for sports betting with the granting of licenses to several providers. This was made possible because the proceedings of a provider who was refused a license and which had led to the halt of the entire licensing procedure by way of temporary legal protection, was terminated by the plaintiff. As of the beginning of March 2021, 28 applicants had been granted a sports betting license. An application of licensed sports betting offers is tolerated despite the lack of an advertising permit that is currently still required, provided that the gaming company has already submitted a substantiated application.

Advertising regulations

According to the new advertising provision of § 5 GlüStV 2021, advertising for legal gambling offers is permitted in the future with the receipt of a permit to offer the respective game of chance and not only after an application for an additional advertising permit. The license to offer a game of chance should contain so-called content and ancillary provisions for the design of advertising, especially on television and on the Internet. According to the legal situation until June 30, 2021, commercial communication for gambling requires a separate advertising permit for advertising on TV and the Internet. As a rule, the advertising permits are valid for two years. The until 30. Advertising permits issued on June 2021 for existing licenses continue to apply for one year as content and ancillary provisions, like the respective basic permits under GlüStV 2021. Compared to the State Treaty on Gambling, which is still in force, the requirements of Section 5 GlüStV are more extensive and detailed: Forms of advertising such as umbrella brand advertising are explicitly regulated, and there is a time limit for advertising on the Internet and radio for virtual slot machine games, online casinos and online poker only permitted after 9:00 p.m. Advertising for sports betting are also restricted: advertising is not permitted in the vicinity of live broadcasts and live interim results of the advertisement. The ZAW does not believe that these restrictions are necessary.

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