News & Notices: GambleJoe: Current state of affairs with the GlüStV (Page 7)

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Matthias wrote on 11/11/2022 at 18:23

What exactly is your question referring to?

We also had to adapt to the new rules of the game on the German market.
We now only advertise licensed providers in Germany that are on the whitelist.
For members who are in Switzerland, Austria or other countries, our website and also the top lists look different.
And the forum will not be censored, it is still allowed to talk about all gambling providers here.

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Matthias wrote on 11/11/2022 at 21:43

I would appreciate it if you would answer my query first.

Your first statement that we would continue as before, you did not namely not concrete.

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Matthias wrote on 12.11.2022 at 14:11
Your question was " And why don't you care and keep doing what you are doing?"
Actually, I didn't understand your question as you just portrayed it again.

"And why don't you care" - I understand
"and you continue as before?" - can be read ambiguously, namely also as if you think we would continue as before.
But now I realize what you wanted to know.

It's like this, the Joint Gambling Authority of the Federal States (GGL) regulates the cross-state gambling market in Germany from 1.1.2023. That's how they write it on their website: https://www.gluecksspiel-behoerde.de/de/
In fact, they have a department that checks the Internet and the German-language search hits of various search engines and contacts the various site operators, provided they have an imprint.
That's why I wrote in the first post - it looks to the outside world, especially to us, as if the authority is taking the easy way out and pressuring platforms like ours, while others can just go ahead and hide on Curacao or in Hong Kong.
In the case where one does not cooperate with the authority, i.e. only advertises licensed providers, the authority has the possibility to issue a prohibition order. I.e. you must then comply with the rules of the authority, otherwise a court case is imminent.
If you are found guilty, you could face extraordinarily high fines in the 6-digit range.
In order to avoid this written prohibition order in our case, we tried to work out compromises and solutions with our lawyers. One suggestion was that we remove all gambling providers who are not interested in a license, but at the same time we can apply for a license for all those providers who can prove that they have applied for a license and that the license application has a chance of being granted. However, in our case, the authority was not ready for compromises.
Of course, they could have continued as before and let it come to a court hearing, but who would have been served by that. We asked ourselves this question. In the end, there is always the Risk that a judge will make an incomprehensible decision, the tide will turn against us, we will have to appeal, and the drama will drag on for years.
We did not want to go through this procedure, the associated headaches and the financial expenses.
It was more important to us that we could continue to operate this forum and platform, even though we were aware that this change would be a challenge economically.

Nevertheless, we even welcome the fact that the online gambling market in Germany is being regulated - if the regulation were also comprehensible, fair and effective. Unfortunately, regulation is currently only driving more players into the black market and crypto-casinos.
I also cannot understand why it is possible to play with 100 euros per spin in German state-run casinos with virtually no limit. Without any Deposit limit and with alcohol being served at the slot machine. From my own experience and observation, I can say that the staff are not the least bit interested if you sink 5,000 euros in the machine within an hour. In my view, this has nothing to do with the prevention of gambling addiction.

Therefore, we also hope that the GGL staff will eventually heed our advice and adapt the existing rules to give licensed providers a chance to keep up with the black market offers.
Raising the 1 euro limit to 5 euros per spin would be attractive.
In addition, I can understand that the authority wants to prevent quickspins on slots, because the addictive effect on the brain cannot be neglected. The risk of addiction increases with the speed of the game, because it definitely has an impact on how quickly success (or failure) can be achieved after the amount of money is set.
The faster the game runs, the more likely you are to lose control over your own gambling behavior and the money you set. Everything is correct so far.
With regard to the goal of the gambling treaty, namely the channeling of the gambling impulse into regulated offers, an adjustment of the 5-second rule to 2 seconds should nevertheless be considered in order to make an attractive and competitive gambling offer possible.
An hourly break of 5 minutes is understandable in my opinion and the deposit limit of 1,000 euros per month should also be sufficient for the normal player to satisfy the normal gambling instinct.
Nevertheless, there should be the possibility, with a short proof of assets, that limit can be set individually.

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Matthias wrote on 12.11.2022 at 14:11
Your question was " And why don't you care and keep doing what you are doing?"
Actually, I didn't understand your question as you just portrayed it again.

"And why don't you care" - I understand
"and you continue as before?" - can be read ambiguously, namely also as if you think we would continue as before.
But now I realize what you wanted to know.

It's like this, the Joint Gambling Authority of the Federal States (GGL) regulates the cross-state gambling market in Germany from 1.1.2023. That's how they write it on their website: https://www.gluecksspiel-behoerde.de/de/
In fact, they have a department that checks the Internet and the German-language search hits of various search engines and contacts the various site operators, provided they have an imprint.
That's why I wrote in the first post - it looks to the outside world, especially to us, as if the authority is taking the easy way out and pressuring platforms like ours, while others can just go ahead and hide on Curacao or in Hong Kong.
In the case where one does not cooperate with the authority, i.e. only advertises licensed providers, the authority has the possibility to issue a prohibition order. I.e. you must then comply with the rules of the authority, otherwise a court case is imminent.
If you are found guilty, you could face extraordinarily high fines in the 6-digit range.
In order to avoid this written prohibition order in our case, we tried to work out compromises and solutions with our lawyers. One suggestion was that we remove all gambling providers who are not interested in a license, but at the same time we can apply for a license for all those providers who can prove that they have applied for a license and that the license application has a chance of being granted. However, in our case, the authority was not ready for compromises.
Of course, they could have continued as before and let it come to a court hearing, but who would have been served by that. We asked ourselves this question. In the end, there is always the Risk that a judge will make an incomprehensible decision, the tide will turn against us, we will have to appeal, and the drama will drag on for years.
We did not want to go through this procedure, the associated headaches and the financial expenses.
It was more important to us that we could continue to operate this forum and platform, even though we were aware that this change would be a challenge economically.

Nevertheless, we even welcome the fact that the online gambling market in Germany is being regulated - if the regulation were also comprehensible, fair and effective. Unfortunately, regulation is currently only driving more players into the black market and crypto-casinos.
I also cannot understand why it is possible to play with 100 euros per spin in German state-run casinos with virtually no limit. Without any Deposit limit and with alcohol being served at the slot machine. From my own experience and observation, I can say that the staff are not the least bit interested if you sink 5,000 euros in the machine within an hour. In my view, this has nothing to do with the prevention of gambling addiction.

Therefore, we also hope that the GGL staff will eventually heed our advice and adapt the existing rules to give licensed providers a chance to keep up with the black market offers.
Raising the 1 euro limit to 5 euros per spin would be attractive.
In addition, I can understand that the authority wants to prevent quickspins on slots, because the addictive effect on the brain cannot be neglected. The risk of addiction increases with the speed of the game, because it definitely has an impact on how quickly success (or failure) can be achieved after the amount of money is set.
The faster the game runs, the more likely you are to lose control over your own gambling behavior and the money you set. Everything is correct so far.
With regard to the goal of the gambling treaty, namely the channeling of the gambling impulse into regulated offers, an adjustment of the 5-second rule to 2 seconds should nevertheless be considered in order to make an attractive and competitive gambling offer possible.
An hourly break of 5 minutes is understandable in my opinion and the deposit limit of 1,000 euros per month should also be sufficient for the normal player to satisfy the normal gambling instinct.
Nevertheless, there should be the possibility to have the limit set individually with a short proof of assets.

This post has been translated automatically