Brandenburg Makes Slight Touches to Gambling Framework

Both federal states have scrambled to amend their own legal vocabulary with the German Gaming Treaty coming into force in 2021.

Brandenburg Provides Swift Gambling Update To Conform With The Treaty

With the quickly coming new Glücksspielneuregulierungstaatsvertrag (GlüNeuRStV), German federal states were willing to fall into line. The German state of Brandenburg is the latest in reforming its own regulatory system and further aligning it with the industry's oncoming massive reform.

Brandenburg will freshen up the 2007 Casino Act to now allow online casino games, a hallmark of the coming regulatory reform. The state used the opportunity to amend some obsolete provisions about sports betting and gaming arcades in depth.

Private lottery draws that do not exceed $46,500 of sales or approximate €40,000 tickets will be permitted to take place. But the state will want betting shops and arcades to now be separated by a gap of at least 500 meters in between.

Introducing Limitations And Charting A Path For The Future

The Treaty itself would bring some important and systemic improvements to the wider sector. The cap per spin bet was changed for once to €1 something Brandenburg did not represent in its own reform, but only because the treaty outstrips the federal regulations.

Slots must therefore be made available separately from table games. Any changes will extend even to the category of sports betting. Live betting or in-play games, for example, would be confined to winners and next-scorers.

Players would be subject to a monthly spending limit of around $1,110 or around €1,000 in local currency. However, the deal also provides a case-by-case analysis, which will encourage players to qualify for $11,110 to be removed for those capped.

The new arrangement replaces the convention of the third party, which is the law in force today. GlüNeuRStV may be arriving but it has not yet been ratified, with the consent required for the treaty to be signed by 13 out of the country's 16 nations. However, if anything, they agreed a transitional duration.

The regulatory changes have been proposed to the European Commission which regulates wider improvements in the current regulatory structure on gambling in the Member States.

Another Member State, Spain, was also conducting a review of the gambling market. The nation adopted temporary steps to deal with the pandemic, but then built on those measures and agreed to extend the measures into a more permanent capacity, sending them for approval by the European Commission.