News

Thursday, June 29, 2006
Further ban on sports betting in Germany

The German state of North Rhine Westphalia, with 18 million people the 4th largest state in Germany, will no longer tolerate private sports betting operators. This is the outcome of a ruling by the state’s highest legal court, to which there is no appeal.

The court of North Rhine Westphalia gave an interpretation of the gambling ruling by the German constitutional court earlier this year. This ruling said that German states, which have the legal authority over gambling issues, either apply strict rules on consumer protection and public order, or open up the market to private operators. The trend in Germany seems that the German states chose to restrict gambling operations to state operators.