Schleswig-Holstein vote dooms Germany’s new gambling treaty

Germany’s latest gambling treaty appears dead in the water after two state parliaments decided not to sign on.

In March, the leaders of Germany’s 16 länder approved the country’s new State Treaty on Gambling, which was to take effect on January 1, 2018. But the treaty required the unanimous approval of each state’s legislature, and legislators in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein voted on Friday to opt out of the treaty.

Schleswig-Holstein’s vote wasn’t unexpected, as the state’s newly elected government announced in June that it planned to revive the state’s previous gambling legislation, which, unlike the federal treaty, was cool with operators offering online casino and poker in addition to sports betting. Friday’s vote wasn’t even close, with only the Social Democratic Party members voting in favor of the federal treaty.

Schleswig-Holstein had also announced in June that it would team with the state governments in North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate and Hesse on a new regulatory scheme based on the original Schleswig-Holstein licensing regime that it hoped the rest of the states would eventually join.