Germany Expands Regulated Market Awarding Two Online Slots Licenses

Two leading online slot operators received a license to operate in Germany last week.

Interwetten and Admiral Receive License in Germany

Last week, the Landesverwaltungsamt Sachsen-Anhalt, the state administration office of Saxony-Anhalt, added Interwetten Gaming Limited to the white list of operators, allowed to offer their services in the country. This came after, the operator received an online slot license enabling it to introduce online slot games for customers in Germany. Under the new license, Interwetten will operate under two different domains, interwetten.de as well as lasmegas.de.

In addition to Interwetten, the administration office of Saxony-Anhalt issued another license. This resulted in Novomatic’s subsidiary, Admiral, receiving an online slot license, enabling it to start offering online gambling services for customers in Germany. While Interwetten will operate under two different domains, Admiral will offer its services via admiralbet.de.

The recently awarded licenses increased the number of whitelisted operators. In fact, last month, another operator was awarded a license to operate online slot games. Late in September, the online casino operator Rootz received a license. This allowed the Malta-based operator to introduce its services to customers in the country. Before that, in August, the gambling and sports betting brand, BlueBet, also received approval to offer online slot games for customers within the regulated German market. With BlueBet’s entry, German players gained access to a wide variety of slot games. With that in mind, the recent license approval for Interwetten and Admiral further expanded the portfolio of games available for German customers.

Black Market Operators Impact Tax Revenue

To launch their services in Germany, operators and brands need to comply with the local regulatory framework for gambling activities. This regulation is facilitated via the State Treaty on Gambling which seeks to protect vulnerable individuals and children from online gambling. By launching their services in Germany, all those operators ensured their compliance with the regulatory framework.

However, just like any industry, there are bad actors within the online gambling vertical too. Only recently, the German Sports Betting Association (DSWV), urged for action against black market gambling operators. In a report released late last month, the DSWV warned that there may be more than 400 online black-market operators offering services for Germans.

Having a significant number of black market, unlicensed gambling operators poses risk for online users. At the same time, it deprives the country of tax revenue. With that in mind, in the third quarter of this year alone, Germany collected €596.1 million ($585.6 million) from gambling, marking an increase of 15.5% when compared to the same period in 2021. A big part of that revenue increase was the result of an increase in taxes collected from online slot games.