New regulations for online poker in Germany

Online poker in the country of Germany is now subject to a number of new regulations, including table and deposit limits and a stricter "know your customer" (KYC) policy. Those changes are to be implemented starting this month as a transitional period to prepare operators and customers for when it becomes law in effect in July 2021. Read the full article for more details.

New regulations for online poker in Germany

Natural8

Rakeback Up to 60%
Deposit bonus Up to $1000

+ big traffic on all stakes
+ big and well known poker network
+ a lot of big MTTs
- no HUD support
- PVI rake structure
- high rake

Review

After a period of turbulence and apprehensiveness, the new German legislation regarding online poker is finally out. This include a number of changes, to be counted and enforced as law in July 2021. Changes are expected to be already implemented, however, to get customers and operators used to it, there is a "transitional tolerance period" with some degree of flexibility regarding actually enforcing the changes. These include:

- A limit of the maximum number of tables a player can play at the same time: four tables.
- A monthly cap in deposits: € 1,000.
- The player can not choose seat or table select.
- The player has to be given access by the operator to a "panic button" that, when clicked, imposes a 24-hour ban to the player.

Some sites already have those limitations in place, although usually not applied to MTTs (multi table tournaments). The monthly deposit limit, however, is likely the worst of the new regulations, practically banning pro players from the online poker rooms in Germany - at this point, most of those players have already re located to other countries and the ones who have not done it yet are probably looking to do so in a near future. Now for recreational players who tend to not have this option of moving to a different country just for freer online poker, they are expected to be forced to reduce their action. This will have consequences in the activities in general in the online poker rooms.

Another very significant change that is forcing both players and operators out of the German market are the KYC policies: players are required to provide identification and other verification requirements, even having to confirm identity on webcam. Farewell playing anonymously in Germany. This puts another significant strain on the operators, who become responsible to complying to those requirements and verifying their player base.

Speculations in the Two Plus Two online poker forums suggest more regulations down the line, such as limiting players to having online one poker client active at a time (to prevent circumvention of the four tables limit) and so on. For now, we will have to wait and see and bring you any updates on the matter as soon as it becomes known.