The gambling treaty in Germany came into effect January 1^st, 2008 and is valid for four years and even then at least thirteen states out of sixteen have to vote for renewal.  This law was still approved at the federal level by the grand coalition of the Christian Democrat Union (CDU) and the Social democrats (SPD).

About a month ago all Germans were asked to vote for a new federal government and citizens in Schleswig Holstein were also voting for a new state parliament. The grand coalition was displaced by a coalition of the Christian Democrats and the Federal Democrats, both, on federal and state levels.

Last week the state parliament of Schleswig Holstein finalised their coalition agreement and announced, they don’t agree with the German gambling treaty and urges a nationwide change in the existing law. If they don’t come to a federal agreement, Schleswig Holstein will look into introducing their own model.

A member of the Federal Democrats expressed themselves to the German newspaper Die Welt saying:  “That this would set a nationwide alert and other states would follow.”

Private portals including online casino operators along with monopoly firms like lotto and bingo are suffering big losses since the treaty was introduced and are hoping for a turnaround and are confident that the gambling law will be discussed politically and not be solved legally. Schleswig Holstein set the first step towards a new gambling revolution.