Regulators in Germany have banned an unnamed payment provider, after it was deemed to be processing payments from unregulated online casino operators.
The decision was made by the Ministry of Sport in Lower Saxony. The state has also said that it’s preparing to dish out further payment prohibition orders in due course.
Research has also found that in the absence of betting on live sports betting events, many players have opted not to gamble whatsoever.
Online gambling heavily restricted in Germany
As things stood before the novel coronavirus (Covid-19), online casino wagering was only legal in the state of Schleswig-Holstein. Other than that, sports betting and state lotteries were also permitted.
Earlier this week, the Ministry said that it had “once again prohibited an internationally active payment service provider from participating in payment transactions in connection with illegal gaming in Germany.”
Minister Boris Pistorius also warned that payment companies that don’t comply with German online gambling regulations will face similar punishments.
The payment provider it banned was not named, but said to be “international”.
Lower Saxony’s Ministry is, according to the current State Treaty, responsible for gambling operations both in its own state and throughout the rest of Germany.
German players checking out of gambling for the time being
As with most other countries, Germany has shut down its sporting activities.
MySportWetten, an iGaming affiliate which focuses on the country, carried out a poll on Facebook. In this, participants chose the below.
- 77% ‘are not betting anymore’;
- 14.9% have ‘kept betting’;
- 2.5% ‘play online casino instead’.
Meanwhile, 3.1% of people said that they’re now concentrating on the stock market.
From the percentage of players still betting, 75% are doing so on esports. Table tennis was the second most popular form of sports betting at 14.3%, with a further 3.6% wagering on darts.
Online payment providers have been affected in Germany before
PayPal has halted its acceptance of online casino payments in recent years, which affected the profits of some operators.
In November 2019, LeoVegas said that its revenue in this market was taking a hit of between 20 and 30% due to this.
Back in 2018, GVC’s German-facing brands took PayPal off their list of payment options.
