More Operators Fall in Line as New Online Gambling Law in Germany Comes into Force
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The new online gambling law has come into effect in Germany as of Thursday. The online poker market in particular is heavily influenced by the new regulations, and more operators have responded to the new burden.
Unibet and PokerStars were the first to react and now more operators have joined the bandwagon. Among them are GGPoker, partypoker, Run It Once Poker and the iPoker network; 888poker has not published any adjustments yet.
Most of the existing restrictions of the tolerance policy have been carried over into the Glücksspielneuregulierungsstaatsvertrag (GlüNeuRStV-E). The controversial turnover tax of 5.3% has also been agreed upon, which poses new challenges to all online poker operators that wish to continue their services to customers in the country.
The specifics are outlined in paragraphs §46 and §47 of the law draft that has been submitted to the German Bundestag. As per the definition, the game begins on each respective table when the player receives their first card and ends when leaving the table. By this interpretation, the invested stake (Einsatz in German) by the player is supposed to be taxed for every new cash game entry.
