German Player's Online Black Jack Winnings Confiscated

18:02
12 Jan

A German online casino player was prosecuted and fined by the court in Munich for playing blackjack on a site not licensed in Germany.

The twenty-five year old paint decorator moved money to his bank account in several big chunks, proceeding to withdraw big amounts. This alerted German Financial Authorities. €63,490 was found hidden in a shoe box in the young German's home. After this find, he was prosecuted for illegal gambling, ordered to pay a fine of €2,100 and his winnings of €74,258 were confiscated.

At the court, defendant claimed that he was under impression that online gambling was legal in Germany, as numerous high-profile persons, like Boris Becker, were endorsing the activity as a part of their sponsorship deals. The judge disagreed with defendant claiming that gambling activities promoted by Boris Becker are related to legal activities of online sports betting.

Judge added that every person out there would understand that sports betting and blackjack are not the same and that the defendant checked the box in the site’s terms and conditions which advised to check legal status in their country of residence.

The European Court has ruled that in the specific case of gambling, public authorities have a degree of additional control in determining the requirements arising from the protection of consumers and social order, and that it is up to each Member State to assess whether it is necessary to ban gambling and betting activities wholly or in part, or whether it is sufficient to limit and control them.www.casino.org;
At the beginning of 2008 all online gambling was banned in Germany with exception of horse racing and only Schleswig-Holstein of 16 federal states in Germany regulated and licensed online gambling in 2012, while other 15 states are offering sports betting but not casino gaming.
Schleswig-Holstein withdrew its gambling law in January 2013 (after it had granted about 50 licenses to online operators) and joined the ISTG, which is now the only applicable gambling law in Germany. However, those licenses already granted under Schleswig-Holstein’s gambling law remain valid for a period of six years. In other words, about 50 online operators may still lawfully offer gambling services despite the prohibition under the ISTG. www.taylorwessing.com;
Every player is responsible in his own right to read and fully understand ToC of the site they chose to play on and confirm its the legal status in their country of residence before playing for real money.
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