what makes u think it will be tax free?
And also what makes u think that traditional sites are going to buy german licenses when they restrict players to 1k limit/month ?

paying taxes and licences fees for a tiny market is too expensive for RIO, but SH players are connected to the EU/COM pool (like many others [uk, be, bg ...]). BUT you can't sign up on it like ES. there are few differences, i think no p2p transfers, no skrill ... can't remember all, talked to a SH guy after it was implemented.


regarding the new law: so far the 1K limit is planned, but lobbyists will have some time to make proposals (February is a meeting). so maybe there will be changes.
despite that, most regs (needing more) are living in the uk, malta or AT anyway. not sure about how many fish donk of more than 1K monthly tbh and how that effects the overall player pool*.

one thing concerning is definitely, that they plan to impose limits, on what you can play at the same time. e.g. not degen off your roll in 3 casinos at the same time. but again, this is criticised and might not even be technically doable.

since poker isn't that important - sports betting is semi-regulated and media more interested in slots [bc they don't understand poker] - i've read nothing about poker specific things (e.g. will there be a table limit?)

however, i didn't read the original draft, just the news. not sure about the others commentors here itt**, but the main stream news just wrote about a few keypoints of a 70 page juggernaut of legal text. it will take a few days (weeks) until experts are through it and drip down the details. e.g. it could be, that they allow poker, but only NLHE and PLO, MTTs but Spins ... or something like that.

i didn't read anything about if it's fenced or not in the news articles, but my guess that it will be not gated, since SH is kinda like the example, how regulation works.

about taxes ... what i remember is, that sports betting winnings are taxed within the sportsbook in SH, so this could be an issue when casino games and poker are regulated as well.


tl;dr: news coverage of this topic is just scratching the surface, so far i didn't read details about poker and lobbyists will have some time so maybe there are some changes coming.

* of coruse it sucks for high rollers, that have Germanz as customers
** if you have detailed sources, pls share

edit: not saying i'm happy about the possible negative changes, but since a 'black friday' like scenario was a thread, this isn't the worst thing. old gambling treaty tried to outlaw poker, operators just were lucky it violated against EU law (i know, interpretation is everything), so they kept going

No, you just run it up like people used to back in the day, if you're actually going to want to play high stakes and not be a massive whale that shouldn't take too long

commenting on the tax situation in Germany: all winnings from gambling like casino games, sports betting and lotteries are tax free in Germany...as long as you don’t make a professional living from it. meaning you can win and you don’t have to pay taxes, but if you have been a pro poker player for a year or so, you winning is based on your skill and not just luck and you pay your bills from the income generated by playing your winnings are to be taxed. its pretty vague for everyone involved

any news on this topic?

Representatives of the 16 states met in March and approved the Glücksspielneuregulierungsstaatsvertrag (GlüNeuRStV) with very few changes. To my understanding there will be the deposit limit of €1.000 per month as well as an implementation, that a user can't play on more than one plattform at once. not the worst case scenario, but definitely not good either.

i still haven't read the draft, only news about it. so i don't know all the details though.

as a side note. the GlüNeuRStV comes into effect on 1st July 2021 and will regulate the entire gaming market (sports betting, poker, casino games). right now casino games and poker are grey area but sports betting should have been regulated since 1. January this year.

however the 3. Glücksspieländerungsstaatsvertrag (3. GlüÄndStV) seems to be causing issues. an operator from Austria claimed the licencing process wasn't transparent and went to court. court approved the complained and stopped the process.

to my (limited) understanding, no licences will be issued and the status quo (operators gonna operate) hasn't change. this might become relevant, if the new law (GlüNeuRStV) includes this same "flawed" licenceing process.

the 1. and 2. versions of the GlüÄndStV were both flawed and operators, who didn't get a licence (or didn't even try) claimed these laws violate European law. hence all the operators work with a maltese licence.

Glücksspieländerungsstaatsvertrag

Gottes be the best word a human language could develope lol. On a side note, as mentioned before the process AFAIK is on hold right now due to the court decision.

Yeah maybe you can start your own country, to avoid these problems...

Call it WaterWorld

Or just build it up. Like a real pro...... Nothing wrong with this rule. Germans are smart!

I really don't want to live in a country where this word is legal wtf? This is 5 words in one! Why not use some spaces?

Glücksspieländerungsstaatsvertrag

Ripe for abuse? Or the simply the laws dictating what a portion of the poker ecosystem must do to accomplish what they need to?

For real? It's awful if it is going to be gated. 1000 limit destroys the games. Most players deposit way more than that on their first deposit if they are playing 100nl and above. Those games really would die. People saying that you just run it up are completely wrong. All games + tournaments above 100 dollars will most likely be gone or have less than 2 tables running as they cannot be sustained economically. If the regs that pieced together what little money that existed in the pool played each other there could be play at 200nl for a little longer until they raked themselves to death.

Yeah, you'd think Germany would be the last country that would want to take freedoms away from its people, they've been down that road before.
What's next, 1000 euros cap on what you can spend on clothes each month?

Pretty much same rules incoming in Sweden, but with about $500 weekly deposit limit and also per site (so $500 on 888, $500 on partypoker, $500 on pokerstars etc)..

Becomes active after 1st June and will be active until at least the end of this year

A weekly deposit limit per site. One can deposit up every week, every site. Plus the sites that don't have a licence (in case they allow the country/the new sign ups).

Bundesländer (counties) recently decided to tolerate the operators until the "new gambling regulation law" (Glücksspielneuregulierungsstaatsvertrag aka GlüNeuRStV) comes into effect (1st July, 2021).

now the gambling regulating authorities posted a set of rules for operators. to my understanding it won't be enforced, but if an operator plans to apply for a licence, they should obey.

there are several rules, but the most notable are

- €1,000 deposit limit (per month AND operator [domain])
- 4 tables max (no mention of "per domain")
- no seating selection

there is also some sort of win/loss balance, that must be displayed ... i think there's something similar for ES. otherstuff include "reality checks" (per hour gaming time).

however, the most important thing is, that it's on short notice. the rules were made public on Sept. 30th, operators should comply until Oct 15th

source: https://www.pokerfirma.com/news/onli...gslimit/684585

Bundesländer are states. Closest equivalent to a county would be a (Land-)Kreis I think?

I think a prominent display for win/loss on a daily/monthly/all-time level should be mandatory for every gaming operator.

Phew, guys... I am happy that I can still buy Lotto-tickets for every amount I want every day of every week.
Otherwise I would say this regulation is bullshit but as long as this is possible and as long as I can go to 1 of these slotcasinos in every bigger city every 2nd street everything is fine.

1 € / spin max limit for slots (and no auto-play) starting from Dec 15th
no stake limit for poker apparently

there is also a change for using Paysafecard as a deposit method
(only possible with a verified paysafecard account from Oct 15th)...

Paysafecard is one of the most used deposit methods for
recreational players.

yes, sry ... was comparing it to the irish counties and not using the proper translation, thx

For the germans:

https://innen.hessen.de/sites/defaul...08.09.2020.pdf

https://innen.hessen.de/sites/defaul...uecksspiel.pdf

i think when i deposited on party i already needed to have a verified paysafecard account to be able to use paysafecards. you seem to not have to verifying with the site if you withdraw to a verified paysafecard account though. at least in my case.

Would you be excited to play in a state owned online poker room where fees & rake amount to 50% of deposits?

also interesting: obligatory implementation of a 'reality check' after every hour of play.

also casino games cant be called 'casino' games anymore. greetings from the casino-lobby.


so they also emphasize that if you, as a site, implement and uphold the regulations right now until the actual licencing process has started you will be given a licence. if not, youre chances are practically zero and you will be sued.


edit: actually is crazy to realize that online poker is going to be legal in germany very soon. thats pretty cool.

I will not complain regarding these regulations (deposit limit and max 4 tables) since I am a rec player myself playing 2-3 tournament tables parallel, rarely 4 but never more and I have my own deposit limit which is way under 1k€/month.

Nevertheless I like the opportunity to try sth else sometimes which could be playing 6 tables or depositing 3k€ (for poker/bigger tourneys) due to a bonus or whatever.

With this regulation coming into effect (and in such short notice) I don't have that opportunity any more which I do not like...

It is a little to harsh in my opinion -> let it still be 6 tables max and a deposit limit to 3k€/month - would leave you enough room as a rec