http://www.hochgepokert.com/2012/12/...-online-poker/

This article claims that a bunch of sites are getting licenses from schleswigholstein and therefore can offer poker and casino games to all of Germany legally.

This would be fantastic news if true.

segregated?

no but we still have to wait a bit to really see what that will bring. the licenses are valid for 6 years afaik

no this is from one german state, all the other german states have made online poker illigal (apparently that violates eu law so the sites dont care). however you can't restrict business from one german state to another german state so this should allow the sites to offer it all over germany under german law (vs under malta or something like that).

the licenses are not segregated (I think this is one of the best laws from a player perspective) but all data has to be stored within the states so it can be reviewed/audited by the gambling commission.

So any site will need a local office but can leverage international player pools. And there are no restrictiins like u need to partern with "real" casino etc.

Is the situation in Germany similar to the US, mainly in the case were state regulations will have the advantage over federal regulations?

wasn't the regulation bill in front of the EU commerce court? Was there a judgement?

gambling is solely under control of the states. the EU is still pushing towards opening up the german market. a very important ruling from german BGH court is to be expected in january regarding EU conformity of gambling legislation of the remaining 15 states where online gambling is ruled out.

currently it is one state down, 15 to go. congrats stars to the new licence.

So in the EU/Germany there is no risk whatsoever of some random prosecutor one day issuing arrest warrants for all of the heads of these companies and seizing their domains etc? They just keep operating in the country and handle it in court like any other business dispute...like adults?

Must be ****ing nice...

My understanding is very basic, but there are conflicting laws in Germany in I think. There might be state law making poker illegal but according to eu law if a country within the eu like Malta legalized it they may offer it in all of Europe.

So it's complicated.

I also read in another article (bild) that this license may only be offered to people in the state.

Am I missing something? There's German players at my table right now and there always has been, since when was it illegal?

Just goes to show that Canada is the best country in the world Land of the free!

Bob Graham, as far as I know in some Germany states poker is illegal, and on some of them not. Similar to USA.

No, it's the same in all of Germany except in that one state sh.

There is a German law, which is the same for all other states (they all use the same state law) that makes poker clearly illegal.

But sites operate thru Malta and its against eu law to reject business from other states. That is my laymen understanding.

Unfortunately, that's not true. The sites are only allowed to offer games to residents of Schleswig-Holstein. They have to confirm the players' identity, e.g. through their ID cards. Players are only allowed to use one account and only one payment method. Transfers between players are strictly forbidden.

The worst part: Players can't select on which tables they want to play! A random generator will "decide" on which table a player will be seated. This measure is supposed to protect individual players from collusion....

I found this information here: http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldu...d-1772634.html

Edit: second link: http://www.schleswig-holstein.de/IM/...inospiele.html

Torgil yea your right.

It is now not a big deal anymore. I always thought and remeber interviews of the former state government claiming that they could offer to all Germans.

Too bad. This means the rest of Germany could be I'm trouble if the other states get their way with their law.

I definitively don't want to play on a site that basically tells me on which table to play.
But this may still have a positive outcome for online poker in Germany. Because we now don't have unified standards regarding the legality of online poker in Germany, chances are good that at the end of january there will be a positive court decision regarding the status and legality of online poker in Germany. Before SH allowed online poker the argument against it was always to protect players from gambling addiction and prevent minors from playing at all. Now that one federal state has allowed online poker, the EU won't accept this argument anymore.

Hopefully, the restrictions will be softened if online poker really becomes legal in Germany. Otherwise I'll just continue playing on PS.eu and FTP.com.

whats the difference to germany?

Well online poker is actually legal in CA just like in the UK.

Practicallly online poker is legal in Germany right now but the actual legal status is chaotic and future uncertain (it just got a little better).

Germany has no Vegas style casinos, CA does. But any bar and gas station has slots and there are slot casinos on every corner around the country.

Germany has even worse taxes than CA.

Germany has the Autobahn and the best beer in the world.

:-)

Well yes, i agree it seems weird for the regulation to define such a thing.

However if i really think about it, i have to applaud the former state government. I believe they really care about what the players have to say. Think about all the US states, Italy, Spain, France. They all don't care about what is good for the player and the economy overall. For them poker is a money grab. SH thinks about whats good for the state and the player. I once heard an interview of the guy from the CDU that was part of this. I could not believe how educated he spoke and how every thing he said made sense.

With the seating rule they thought about protecting the player and economy as a whole. I really like that. I also like that they care, and take security etc. so seriously. I actually am very surprised that they understand the problem of bum hunting. So yes to me this is actually a good rule. Think about HU games. It would solve the HU problem. Can't believe a government fixes this.

This is the best regulation we have seen ever by a "real" western government. Unfortunately the government that passed it does not exist anymore.

And Canada has Stephen Harper the election fraud, climate destroyer, oil bought, liar, prison system profiteering, science funding removing, environmental protection wrecking prime minister so....Germany wins hands down.

Regarding the random tables, could that maybe mean that only zoom poker will be available on the new pokerstars.de site?

they are just talking about "easy seat" method and stuff like that, it's just badly worded because politicians... of course you can still table select and stuff

http://blog.dlapiper.com/gambling/en...ein_s_ministry

but he has kitty

+100000,

i am actually a canadian living in germany and have scanned the thread but just want to make sure i understand that i have realistically nothing to worry about in terms of online poker freedom correct? I do not live in that bundesland

lol, why don't have german politicians kitties?