Online casinos in Germany have been able to breathe a sigh of relief in the past few months, as the German government has decided to renew the State Treaty on Gaming after a long silence and the licenses from Schleswig-Holstein can be extended until 2021. However, the state does not want to make it that simple for operators and is now - at first glance it seems to be working - not against online casinos, but with blockages and prohibited transactions against payment providers.
A consequence for online casinos from the failed state treaty of December 2017?
The Lower Saxony Ministry of the Interior and Sports refers in its entirety to the failed reissue of the State Treaty on Gaming in December 2017. Since the federal states of North Rhine-Westphalia, Schleswig-Holstein and Hesse have not ratified the 2nd GluStV (State Treaty on Gaming), the previous GluStV will cease to apply the year 2011 in force.
The Ministry serves as a central point of contact and is based exclusively on payment restrictions in specific individual cases of illegal gambling offers.
Quote from the current statement by the Lower Saxony Ministry of the Interior and Sport:
- The payment providers concerned should then preferably ensure within the scope of their own business policy (“compliance”) that their means of payment are not available for unauthorized and already prohibited gambling.
- This is linked to the legal obligations of those involved in payment transactions, which particularly result from the Payment Services Supervision Act and the Money Laundering Act.
- This includes, in particular, the duty to check the customers with regard to the business activity they carry out and the origin of the funds they have transferred ("know-your-customer principle").
The Ministry does not disclose which payment provider this is due to data protection reasons. However, it is confirmed that the company is already working with several financial instruments at home and abroad.
While payment transactions for online casinos are becoming more and more important, sports betting providers are treated in mitigating circumstances and therefore do not receive any payment blocks. The current situation is justified once again with the failure of the 2nd GluStV, with which the sports betting area is “continued within the existing legal framework”, the ministry said.
Article 13 for payment blocks in the online casino?
Similar to the quick adoption of the new “Upload Filter” according to Article 13, payment methods are now also blocked for players who, however, are allowed to play in an online casino under European law. Here we have two main questions:
Finally, we have to assume that certain data must be collected from customers in order to be able to implement a payment blockage. In any case, we are excited to see how the Ministry will comment on data protection and the collection of the data required for a blockage - or whether an opinion will be given at all.
The fact is that the operators of gambling in the online casino and for sports betting alone are not allowed to pass on or disclose information for data protection reasons alone. We have already written a detailed article on the current legal situation of online casinos in Germany.
Conclusion: is the payment blockade against online casinos legal at all?
In the event that various service providers will no longer be available for a deposit in the future, we have written a detailed article on current payment methods in the online casino. So if you want to continue playing and have to switch to another provider, you are well informed here.
As already mentioned, all personal and thus personal data must be analyzed for a detailed tracking of all payment transactions. This includes, for example, all customer data or all information about all game rounds of a player. For data protection reasons, no information may be passed on, which is why there is in principle only one option for the ministry that is legal: pressure with warnings and punishments.
We believe that the Ministry will put a lot of pressure on fines and warnings against payment service providers, referring to data that is already publicly available. This is intended to force financial service providers to act independently, so that the blockade cannot ultimately be traced back 100% to the ministry. In the worst case, the means of payment are the "boo" men.
