Creutzmann slams Germany Treaty signing

Jürgen Creutzmann, the politician behind the eponymous Creutzmann report that calls for a European-wide framework directive for the online gambling industry, has slammed the decision by the majority of German Lander to sign its State Treaty calling it a “concealed continuation of the existing monopoly”.

The spokesperson for German political party the FDP in the European Parliament for the internal market and consumer protection said that the signing of the second version of Germany’s gambling legislation “clearly infringes European law”.

“It favours state gambling operators in an inappropriate manner and thus breaches the fundamental freedoms of the internal market enshrined in the European Union,” he said.

Creutzmann went as far as to suggest that the draft appeared to be a licensing system but was in fact a “concealed continuation of the existing monopoly”.

“Several points of the draft legislation contradict the resolution of the European Parliament of 15 November 2011 demanding more transparency and competition for licensing systems in the Member States,” he added. This includes the 5% turnover tax and the restriction to just 20 sports betting licences.

Calling on the European Commission to “fulfil its role of guardian of the treaties and exercises its authority”, he said the compromise included in the draft legislation suggests maintaining the lottery monopoly and liberalising the sports betting market, however, only under strict conditions. “The number of licenses is to be limited to 20 and there will be a 5% tax on stakes.

“The limitation of the number of licences is arbitrary and cannot be justified objectively. If the 16 state operators each already claim a licence for themselves the majority of private operators will be excluded.

“Furthermore the draft creates economic market barriers for private operators. The relatively high 5% tax on stakes for sports bets creates such an unattractive market in Germany that the demand for online sports bets cannot be met by legal operators. Consequently, the majority of consumers will continue to gamble on illegal websites that are not regulated and thus expose themselves to high dangers.”

Several aspects of the version of rapporteur Creutzmann’s report were adopted on 15 November this year acknowledging the cross-border nature of egaming and calling for a framework directive, formalised cooperation between regulators under Commission supervision, and common standards for operators, consumer protection, advertising and electronic identification.

At the time European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA) secretary general Sigrid Ligne told eGaming Review that: “There has been an important shift in the position of the European Parliament compared to two years ago”, when the previous own-initiative report (the Schaldemose initiative) recommended that the EU leave egaming regulation strictly to the national level.

The resolution also called for more efficient national licence application procedures to avoid unnecessary duplication of administrative requirements and controls that have already been verified in another Member State, and consistent use of infringement procedures by the Commission to ensure compliance of Member States’ legislation with EU law.