NRW: Less money to fight gambling addiction

In the new State Treaty on Gambling, the first stated objective in §1 is to prevent the emergence of gambling addiction and to create the conditions for an effective fight against addiction. How does this objective fit in with the actions of the NRW government? In the last few years, the government has reduced the funds for the fight against gambling addiction instead of increasing them.

The fight against gambling addiction has been a top priority for politicians since the beginning of the debate on opening up the online gambling market - or so it has been said. However, a look at the facts shows that player protection may not be as important to the politicians in charge as one might assume. In North Rhine-Westphalia, the largest German state in terms of area, funding for the fight against gambling addiction has been cut by many thousands of euros. This is documented by a small question from several SPD members of parliament.

Less money for player protection - how does this fit in with the objectives of the GlüStV?

The SPD members of parliament submitted a small question (Drs. 18/4799) to the government of North Rhine-Westphalia. They wanted to know to what extent funds were being used to combat gambling addiction.

In their reply, the government officials admitted that the funds had been reduced in recent years. Unfortunately, there is no explanation as to why less money is being spent on problem gambling now than a few years ago. In an article we published here in January, we talked about the launch of the "Online Streetwork" player protection project.

Funding cut by just under 3 %

Specifically, the state government has indicated that funding will be reduced from approximately €1.419 million in 2019 to the current €1.373 million in 2023. In percentage terms, this represents a reduction of less than 3%. However, it should be noted that since the new State Treaty came into force, the fight against gambling addiction has been given top priority (§1 GlüStV). For this reason, the funding cut contradicts the objectives of the GlüStV and is not even justified by the state government. One would rather have expected an increase in funding for this important purpose.

As recently as mid-April this year, we reported on massive gaps in addiction counselling in central Germany.

Embarrassing: State government cannot provide information on number of gambling halls

In their little question, the SPD MPs also wanted to know how many casinos there were in the municipalities of NRW. The surprising and embarrassing answer from the state government: "The requested data on gambling halls is not available to the state government.

More than a year ago, we reported on GambleJoe that NRW had voted in favour of a law that would allow a total of five casino licences to be issued for online casino games.

Conclusion

In North Rhine-Westphalia, funding for the fight against problem and pathological gambling has been cut in recent years without any justification being given. It remains to be seen whether the trend will be reversed in the coming years and whether the state government will once again invest more money in the negative consequences of gambling.

Image source: https://pixabay.com/de/photos/köln-rhein-dom-deutschland-3742546/