Is Online Gambling Illegal In Germany

The District Court of Munich recently refused to make a German man pay his Visa credit card bill, because the charges were made to fund his illegal gambling habit. The lawsuit was filed by Landesbank Berlin AG, which issued the man’s Visa credit account.

Germany is set to prohibit online gambling starting on Jan. While legislators see the ban as a pillar of consumer protection, critics say the accord only serves to protect the state monopoly on. Singapore - There are only two betting venues that provide legal gambling opportunities in Singapore. Even online betting from another establishment can result in a 5,000 Singaporean-dollar fine and up to six months in prison. Taiwan- It’s generally illegal to gamble in Taiwan, though there are some exceptions. Should you be caught betting. Illegal gambling in the State of Virginia constitutes a Class III Misdemeanor. RANK: Patently Illegal. One might think Washington would take a liberal view on online gambling since HB 1114 keeps getting reintroduced in an effort to legalize and regulate Internet Poker, but one would be wrong. What many casino fans, who occasionally spin a few rounds of roulette or slots, do not know: Online Gambling in Deutschland (Germany) is actually illegal. The State Treaty on Gambling does provide for the granting of licenses for the sports betting segment. However, online casinos are not covered by this step towards legalization.

According to the German legal advisory site, Anwalt, the unidentified German man played at an unspecified internationally license online casino. Under German law, offshore online casinos are illegal.

Also under German law, the man should have been compelled to pay his credit card charges. Anwalt stated that he admitted to making the charges, but he argued that Landesbank Berlin should never have allowed him to do so.

Since online casino gambling is strictly forbidden in Germany, the man argued that the bank should have blocked his transactions.

Used MCC Code 7995

The German Federal Court of Justice’s case law stated that banks agreed to fulfill the obligations of cardholders to merchants, but they have no special obligations to fulfill the transaction if it is illegal.

The bank cannot plead ignorant, because the transaction used the Merchant Category Code (MCC) 7995, which denotes a gambling-specific charge. The bank also applied special fees for processing “lottery, betting, and casino sales”.

Is Online Gambling Allowed In Germany

In short, Landesbank Berlin AG (pictured above) knew the charges were gambling-related.

German Banks and the Paradise Papers

German banks have come under scrutiny in recent years due to their facilitation of gambling payments. When the Paradise Papers were released in November 2017, it revealed that several of Germany’s top financial institutions were facilitating payments to international gambling operators.

Is Online Gambling Illegal In Germany Today

The release of the documents from the legal firm Appleby, along with corporate services providers Estera and Asiaciti Trust, were particularly embarrassing to a number of big names worldwide: Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Charles, President of Colombia Juan Manuel Santos, U.S Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, and AIG. The Paradise Papers’ release caused criminal investigations in Switzerland and Argentina. The evidence of the global elite’s unsavory financial dealings sparked a new wave of reforms in the European Union, while it caused political uproar in Turkey and Angola.

The Paradise Papers caused audits of financial institutions in India and South Korea. In Germany, the release of the papers by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists caused scrutiny of Germany’s financial institutions’ payment processing, especially in illicit activities like online gambling.

Online Gambling Banned In Germany

German Gambler Could Face Fine

While one might be tempted to think the unidentified German gambler got away scot free, that might not be the case if German authorities decide to charge him with “participation in unlawful gambling“. Now that he has admitted to such an act in open court, he exposes him to certain legal backlash.

In 2015, a German man was forced to pay back €63,000 in gambling winnings on a Gibraltar-based site, because he had won the cash through illegal activities. In that case, the man not only lost his winnings, but a Munich court forced him to pay a €2,100 fine as restitution for his misdeeds.

Beyond that, being sued by the bank which issued your Visa credit card sounds like a good way to hurt one’s credit score. The bank is going to report the delinquent payments and might well cancel the card. If the player ran up a huge credit card debt, perhaps he had no other choice.

German Online Gambling Law

Germany’s online gambling laws have been a source of strife and ridicule for most of the past 10 years. The state and federal governments cannot come to an uniform set of policies regarding online gambling.

Online sportsbooks continue to operate, but the European Union believes Germany protects its domestic gaming companies with one-sided statutes. A German court last year upheld its online casino ban, though many see the law upending EU international laws on fair commerce.

Meanwhile, the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein continues to take an entirely different tack than most German states. One would expect Germany to eventually decide on a sensible online gambling law, but under German law, all 16 states have to agree to the same policy for that happen.

Online gambling is mostly outlawed in Germany. We say
“mostly” because Germany is one of those places where it’s
definitely illegal to host a gaming site, but the legality of
just placing bets online is unclear. A certain interpretation of
German law could classify the act of placing a bet online as
illegal, but the authorities appear to have no interest in
reading or enforcing the law in that manner.

One thing we can tell you for certain is that online gambling
is popular in Germany. More importantly, not a single German has
ever gotten in trouble placing a bet over the internet. The
legal battles in that country mostly revolve around the right of
operators to offer their services to the public.

Where to Play Online

Any Germans reading this should look to gambling sites based
out of the country. Current national law doesn’t allow for the
licensing of casino sites, so people resort to foreign
operators. Companies based outside of Germany aren’t beholden
to German law and can therefore accept wagers from anyone inside
the country.

The main thing to remember when dealing with foreign
operators is that you have no legal recourse under German law if
something happens to your money. It’s best to stick with
gambling sites that are licensed by reputable jurisdictions such
as the UK or the Isle of Man. Equally important is the
reputation of each site in terms of paying players and hosting
honest games.

Stick with the places recommended here to ensure your safety
and get paid when you win. These are some of the biggest names
in the global gaming market, and they are as legit as any
brick-and-mortar casino in Germany.

German Law is in a State of Flux

The difficulty in analyzing the German market is that the
laws have experienced a great deal of turbulence in recent
times. Adding to the confusion is the ability of each state to
regulate gambling how it sees fit.

Germany is a mix of wide-reaching national laws and more
limited state laws. Some forms of betting are allowed in some
states while others are banned in others. It’s also apparent
that incoming governors are not afraid to completely reverse
gaming laws enacted by their predecessors.

Up until 2008, online gambling was unregulated in Germany.
The laws at the time didn’t address the internet in any way.
Things changed when the Interstate Treaty on Gambling (ISTG) was
passed in 2008. This effectively banned all forms of online
gambling other than sports betting and horse racing offered by
state-owned entities.

All 16 states initially joined the treaty. The state of
Schleswig-Holstein opted out in 2012 and even issued licenses to
about 3 dozen operators, including PokerStars and 888. It would
not last for long. The move was reversed just a year later when
the state government was voted out of office and the new
governor took over.

The good news for the operators that went through the trouble
of getting licensed is their 6-year licenses remain in effect.
All operators who earned licenses are able to provide real money
casino games and poker to players inside the state of
Schleswig-Holstein until 2018.

As things stand now, online gambling is largely outlawed
across Germany with the exception of the two dozen or so operators
who have licenses to operate in Schleswig-Holstein. There are no
other legal gaming sites in Germany, and there’s no way to
obtain a license to offer games.

German gaming laws violate EU rules regarding free trade and
competition. The EU has chastised Germany for its harsh stance
on gambling, but Germany seems destined to keep things as they
are for the time being. In the meantime, we would like to point
you to any of the safe and reputable gaming sites mentioned on
this site.