Sports Betting and Moneyspielautomaten Allowed in Hamburg

Green light for sports betting offers in Hamburg restaurants

By Stephan Naumann Published on: May 1st, 2017 Updated on: November 27th, 2019

Good news for all restaurant operators: The Hamburg Regional Court has come to the decision that restaurants and sports bars are now allowed to offer sports betting. The popular meeting points were excluded from the valid separation requirement, which states that arcades are not allowed to offer sports betting at the same time. Although you can find a certain amount of moneySpielautomaten in many bars, these are not defined as arcades and are therefore excluded from the segregation requirement.

The current law in USA states that no sports betting may be arranged in casinos or arcades. It is even forbidden to find betting offices and gaming arcades in the same building complex. The owner of a sports bar sued the ruling after she was told she could not offer betting terminals and gaming machines at the same time in her establishment. Now she has been proven right in court because bars and restaurants are not defined as gaming halls.

When checked by the Federal Association of Vending Machine Entrepreneurs (BA) The lady was informed that in addition to the gaming machines, she was not allowed to offer terminals for placing sports bets in her business. An injunction was then filed against the operator, but the Hamburg Regional Court decided not to classify the restaurant as an arcade and the action was therefore invalid. The responsible lawyer for the BA has accordingly criticized the vague legal situation and plans to appeal.

The State Treaty on Gambling contains some gray areas

The State Treaty on Gambling in USA is an agreement between the 16 federal states that has regulated the conditions for gambling in this country since January 1, 2008. This means that arcades are strictly prohibited from offering sports betting. In November 2011, this contract was revised for the first time and re-signed by all federal states except Schleswig-Holstein. The reason for this was, among other things, that the state sports betting monopoly violated European law requirements. Thus, in the first state treaty amending gambling, it was decided to guarantee sports betting providers a seven-year exemption from the state monopoly. A second amendment to the treaty is scheduled to come into force in 2018.

The existing unregulated gray area in the agreement is that a gaming arcade is defined as a company that is primarily responsible for setting up gaming equipment. Since this is not primarily the case in restaurants or sports bars, such establishments are not classified as gaming arcades - even if it is permitted to set up up to three moneySpielautomaten there. The focus here is more on meeting friends and getting together. For this reason, paragraph 2 paragraph 4 of the current State Treaty on Gambling applies, which can certainly be viewed as a gray area for restaurants, as it exempts them from the ban on offering sports betting and slot machine games at the same time.

Outlook – will other federal states follow this example?

This is rather doubtful, as this case should be viewed as special and limited to the federal state of Hamburg. This is an isolated case, which is also reinforced by the different state legislationigt and therefore cannot be applied to other federal states. Nevertheless, it cannot be ruled out that further cases will be brought before the respective regional courts and restaurant operators would like to be excluded from the separation requirement.

Green light for sports betting offers in Hamburg restaurants

Green light for sports betting offers in Hamburg restaurants

The State Treaty on Gambling contains some gray areas

Outlook – will other federal states follow this example?

Similar posts

Also read

Last minute rescue? Gambling giant Bally’s offers $250 million for Star Entertainment

Star Entertainment accepts A$300 million takeover offer from Bally’s

Lottery players crack the $95 million jackpot in the USA: How did the gambling coup succeed?