MGA licence no longer valid in Germany

The German government looks to regulate the market due to a rise in German player accounts

In the past, a provider with a European Union licence such as licences from the Malta Gaming Authority or Gibraltar have been able to operate in Germany. Having said that, due to the rise in German players, the German government has set new stipulations that will really challenge online casinos.

The year 2020 saw the German Gaming Authority witness a massive increase of German player accounts with casino websites, and now wants to regulate the market by July 2021. It will require operators to hold a German licence with a uniform, countrywide regulatory catalogue. 

With the new German online licence, table games and live casinos will be no more, as these will be reserved for land-based casinos who have their own licences. 

Existing online casinos that want to obtain the German licence are supposed to stop offering table games and live gaming. 

Subsequently, casinos that ban table games from their game range, are more likely to receive the new licence in July 2021. Many Malta-licenced providers are following that path on the German market. 

Furthermore, gambling websites with a German licence will not be called casinos anymore and will carry the terms “Spielbank” or “Spielhalle” which are synonyms for the word casino. The change in terms is an attempt to give the impression that the user will be entering an arcade-like gaming experience rather than a gambling site. 

The big question now is how Germany will react to operators with the Curacao licence. Currently it seems they have an advantage over the MGA licence, but the Netherlands applied financial pressure on the local government.

Last month the Dutch government announced that it had reached an agreement with its Curacao counterparts regarding “measures and structural reforms” intended to make the country financially stable.

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