FDP recommends approval procedures
As the General-Anzeiger in Bonn reports, the FDP in North Rhine Westphalia is not happy with the dragging and difficult approval procedures for online casinos. What is exactly going wrong here?
Dirk Wedel, Spokesperson for the FDP Parliamentary Group in the central committee stated in a conversation with the regional daily newspaper, that many potentials are left behind by the current procedures. He sees the State Gambling Act of 2021 as an important “bridge in the legality of online casino games”.
The new regulations are a good instrument to build a legally watertight gambling environment and contain illegal gambling. Finally, but not least Wedel pointed out the possible additional tax revenue through legal online casinos. However, many obstacles are placed in the way before one can see the corresponding benefits. According to the General-Anzeiger one definitely cannot say that the implementation is going fast.
Overdue waiver of the legislative decree is the “chief culprit”
What is leading to the shortcomings in the approval procedures ? The newspaper here refers to a statement of the Minister for Internal Affairs, Herbert Reul (CDU).
According to the latter the overdue waiver of the legislative decree is to blame for the difficult situation. There are still no clear regulations.
No administrative arrangement for the safe server
The safe server is an obstacle. This is a data storage which ensures all information which is relevant for the Gambling Authority. The Authority must finally have access to the relevant data. This is what is lacking.
A specific administrative arrangement must be decided upon so that the information is available in a legally watertight way. Till now this does not exist. The work on it started way back in Spring 2021!
What does safe server mean exactly?
The safe server builds the central instrument of the evaluation system of the Gambling Authority. It is used to monitor the activities of the gambling providers. Licensed online casinos (or those which would like to receive a German licence) are obliged to record all the relevant data on a relevant data storage for the authorities.
The safe servers are supplied and operated by the gambling providers at their own cost. The evaluation system regularly refers to the data storage to check everything and download the information about the process.
Why does the administrative arrangement take so long?
According to the General-Anzeiger, at the beginning of 2021 contact was established with the region of Saxony Anhalt, which was originally in charge of this area. However, the processing of the administrative arrangement was quickly shelved.
The reason given was the following: it had already been decided that on the 1st.January 2023 the GGL, the Gambling Authority responsible for all regions, would be taking over. Therefore, without further ado such an important operating point regarding the legislation of online casinos was shelved.
The GGL, which was still under development had asked the regions way back in December 2021, whether they were interested to work together - and NRW accepted. However till now nothing concrete has been done in this regard.
FDP ‘s Dirk Wedel finds the status of the implementation disenchanting
Dirk Wedel seems to be very disappointed about the problems: “It results that the status of the implementation in NRW has till now been disenchanting.“ Wedel would like to see “more speed in the implementation” and points out that for example the region of Schleswig-Holstein has long regulated all that is necessary.
The State Gambling Act 2021 and the regions
The new State Gambling Act of 2021 enables the legislation of online casinos. The legal provision gives the individual regions a certain leeway in the regularisation.
They have the possibility to determine that they want online casinos or particular games to be organised by a state-owned monopolist. For example, there is a casino monopoly in Thuringia. They also have the option to license private providers and give them a concession.
In NRW online casino games have been legally permitted since February 2022. They did away with having a state-owned monopoly – casino operators have access to the market. The implementation must clearly be honed.
Conclusion
The difficulties in the implementation of the approval procedures for online casinos have come as no big surprise for all who at one time or another experienced the German bureaucracy. The critique of the FDP politician Dirk Wedel is no doubt justified. Unfortunately (as is often the case in politics) he does not give a solution for the problem.
Most readers can however make sense of this: setting priorities and speeding up bureaucracy. Those who want to protect the players and take tax revenues must become active. There is little or no initiative in the behaviour shown here.
I ask myself: Is it too difficult to transfer the regulations and process which are already functioning in North Rhine Westphalia and adapt them accordingly?!
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