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Residents and visitors to Bavaria are the first Germans to be able to play roulette or blackjack legally online, as the state-owned Lotto Bayern has become the first licensed operator for table games.
The website Spielbanken Bayern Online officially opened Tuesday (April 16) with blackjack, roulette and Texas Hold'em poker against the bank.
The website offers “Live From Bavaria” roulette from 10am to 2am on most days and until 3am on Fridays and Saturdays, with automatic roulette at all hours.
The lack of online casino games licences is a sore point for the German gambling industry, as until this week the entire online market for roulette, baccarat and blackjack was unlicensed, as licensing for those games is reserved for the 16 states.
The enactment of online gambling licensing in 2021 sent German online gambling revenues tumbling for listed companies, and those revenues have yet to recover.
Entain, parent of Ladbrokes and bwin, on Wednesday reported “expected softness” in Germany, along with the Netherlands and Australia, in its first-quarter earnings report.
Frankfurt-listed Bet-at-Home reported a €1.5m net loss last year, compared with nearly a €12m profit in 2022.
German gambling lobbying groups claim that channelisation for online sports betting may be about 50 percent, while online slots may only be 30 percent.
Other states besides Bavaria seem to be in no rush to approve online casino games, as its state-owned lottery is the first and only licensed online operator for the table games.
In contrast, there are 30 online sports-betting licences and 40 online slots licences.
Legislation in Schleswig-Holstein provides for four online casino licences, but a spokesman said no date has been set yet for a launch of licensing.
North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), with 18m residents is Germany’s biggest state by population, has passed laws enabling a programme for offering five licences, but has not yet begun setting up the system.
The NRW press office did not respond to requests for information in time for deadline.
Earlier this month, Baden-Württemberg’s lottery began offering online slots games under the brand name “Erwin”.
