Thursday, December 14, 2006

Germany's federal states plan to ban internet gambling, according to draft
documents to be discussed by the country's state premieres on Thursday.
Despite pressure from the European Commission to open up Europe's gambling
market to competition, ministers from most states want to sign off on new
rules aimed at protecting their lucrative monopoly as lottery operators. It
also reported that the mainly private firms, such as Tipp24 and Fluxx, would
be granted a one-year transition period. The ministers will meet in Berlin
on Thursday morning. The state of Saxony and two other states imposed a ban
earlier this year on commercial betting. That was directed mainly at
Austrian internet betting firm bwin.com whose German unit is the country's
biggest commercial bookmaker. Bwin and its peers are facing increasingly
stringent regulations in the US and Europe, where governments are curbing
Internet gambling to protect customers and state-run lotteries.