“By allowing an attractive online offer, we want to prevent players from taking advantage of illegal offers if they want to play the games they know from casinos online, for example, and thus strengthen legal gambling,” interior minister Sabine Sütterlin-Waack said of the policy change.
German states awarded igaming licensing powers
Operators can be licensed to provide online slots and poker in Germany via federal gambling regulator Gemeinsamen Glücksspielbehörde der Länder (GGL).
But each of Germany’s 16 states has the option to grant online casino table games licences independently of the gambling regulator.
Tipico’s igaming director Christian Heins took to his LinkedIn page to celebrate the licence, especially in his “home state” of Schleswig-Holstein, adding that he is looking to open discussions with casino table-games providers.