Malta licences officially no longer valid in Germany

Added: December 10, 2020

Due to the rise in numbers of German players, the German government has decided to stop utilizing European Union licences such as licences from the Malta Gaming Authority or Gibraltar, hence providers with such licences will be unable to operate in Germany. These new stipulations are sure to challenge online casinos.

2020 brought forth a massive increase of German players on casino websites, and the German authorities are unhappy with that fact. The German market is set to be regulated by July 2021. It will require operators to hold a German licence with a uniform, countrywide regulatory catalogue.

Existing online casinos that would like to get hold of the German licence are expected to stop offering table games and live gaming as these will be reserved for land-based casinos who have their own licences. Furthermore, casinos that ban table games are more likely to receive the new licence in July 2021, which is the step that many Malta-based casinos are taking.

Additionally, gambling websites with a German licence will not be called casinos anymore and will be named “Spielbank” or “Spielhalle”, which are both synonyms for the word casino. The change in terms is an attempt to give off the impression that the user will be entering an arcade-like gaming website rather than a gambling site.

It is still unclear what Germany’s reaction will be to operators holding the Curacao licence. Right now, it seems that they have an advantage over the MGA licence, but the Netherlands applied financial pressure on the local government. Last month, the Dutch government announced that it had reached an agreement with its Curacao counterparts regarding “measures and structural reforms” intended to make the country financially stable.

Curacao licence, European Union licence, Gaming, iGaming, online casinos