German online poker rooms leave the country in response to new regulations

After the approval of new legislation regarding online gambling in the country, poker rooms such as Betfair, Redbet, Ladbroxes and Winamax leave the country permanently while other like PokerStars and Run It Once announce that they are leaving temporarily to adequate themselves to the new regulations. Both players and operators suffer the effects of the new restrictions in the German online poker market.

German online poker rooms leave the country in response to new regulations

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A few days ago, we covered in our news article the regulatory changes the German online poker market faces (you can click here for more details and read the entire article). Basically, the online poker rooms in the country used to be in a sort of "gray area" in therms of legislation, but now there are licenses going to be issued to those who comply to a series of restrictions: KYC (know your customer) policies that requires the players to provide information about themselves and prove their identities through many documents and procedures, a monthly deposit limit of € 1 000, among other rules. Operators are already expected to comply to the changes, even though this period is considered a tolerance, transitional one, with more changes on the horizon to be introduced gradually until next year, like a stake limit of € 1 per game on slot machines, to be fully implemented still this year in December.

Operators response to new online poker regulations in Germany

Some rooms have already decided to leave the market altogether: these at the moment include Betfair, Winamax, Redbet and Ladbroxes. Other announced to be leaving temporarily and expected to return in one or two months after making the necessary changes to conform to the new restrictions, at the moment those include: PokerStars and Run It Once. In general, it caused a massive upheaval in the German market. GVC holdings, the company that owns many of the biggest poker room networks including many that are still currently operating in Germany, declared through a press release: "The overall impact of the Tolerance Policy will be to reduce revenue across the German market". As other more restrictive regulations are expected to be implemented, the drop in revenue will very likely force other poker rooms out of the market as well, hurting not only the companies but also the German players that will have to make do with fewer options to play.

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