Legislazione

Germany – DAW board spokesman pushes for qualitative regulation of commercial slots

Saarland wants to ratify the State Treaty on Gambling in 2021. The state parliament had already adopted the draft law in February in the first reading and referred it to the Committee on Home Affairs and Sport for further discussion.

The latter held an oral hearing on April 7 to which the umbrella organisation Die Deutsche Automatenwirtschaft eV (DAW) was invited. The DAW was represented by its board spokesman, Georg Stecker. The umbrella association DAW had already presented its position in advance together with the Automaten-Verband-Saar eV (AVS) in a written statement.

Mr. Stecker said: “It is right that the State Treaty on Gaming in 2021 regulates the entire gaming market for the first time. Ultimately, the long-existing reality of people’s lives is recognised and an important step is taken to curb the black market on the Internet. The success of regulation depends crucially on control. We need a functioning supervision immediately so that neither the youth and player protection nor the legal providers, above all the providers of commercial slot machine games, are harmed.”

“The quantitative regulatory approach chosen so far is once again proving to be antiquated and inconsistent,” according to Mr. Stecker. “Against this background, the slot machine industry welcomes the fact that the new State Treaty on Gambling provides for the first time qualitative criteria for the regulation of commercial slot machine games. Only those criteria are suitable for realising concerns of youth and player protection that concern the gaming hall itself, its operator and the staff on site. On the other hand, minimum distance requirements and the prohibition of multiple concessions are counterproductive. The reduction in legal offers has been shown to lead to an increase in illegal offers,” explained Mr. Stecker. “We need a sufficient and attractive legal offer.”

“These connections must be taken into account when regulating gambling halls in Saarland,” according to Mr. Stecker. “Make the quality of the offer the linchpin of the regulation”, he demanded and called on the Saarland to obtain multiple concessions with up to three amusement arcades for a limited period if they meet certain high quality criteria. “In addition, arcades should be allowed to fall below minimum distances, provided that they can be shown to meet demanding qualitative criteria.”