Law regards gambling for money in Germany

When I posted last week about Munich's first private casino I mentioned that this was as a result of a new EU directive about gambling. That comment was sourced from the Abendzeitung. I haven't been able to find any further details about this directive, however.

Now I notice that Shamrock, an Irish pub in Munich, is advertising a new Texas Hold'em poker evening to be held regularly on Thursdays, starting January 2007.

In the past we've always had to ensure that the TT poker meetups were strictly not involving money.

So what are these new laws? Is private gambling for money now legal in Germany? Can anyone advertise games involving money?

There were protests on those ad vans things in Munich from some group last week.

Don't know the whole story but I think a recent meeting of the Ministerpräsidenten (State Premiers, because gambling is a state thing) changed the law so the state no longer has a monpoly.

They will face competition of course, notice how the lotto corporate identity is now Germany wide the same.

The protests were based on the fact that the state used to put money it gained into sport and culture and the like and a private operator of gambling of course wouldn't.

I was speaking to the guys who set up the poker school on Saturday in Mia. I believe it was at European Level that the monopoly was broken. I don't know it for a fact, but it makes sense as I can't see the German Regierung wanting to kill the cash cow. Party Poker are sponsoring the Munich Poker School (for 3months at least) so they must be happy with the legalities of it, however my friend who is head of marketing at UKbetting still won't touch it with a barge pole, so not everybody is convinced.

There are limits on the type of gambling. for example with Poker, cash games are not allowed. That means I cannot change 100 bucks for 100 bucks in chips, play for as long as I want and then get up and leave. The games organised need to be of a Tournament stye with the prize pool declared in advance. The maximum they are allowed to charge for a Buy-In is €50, although I note the Munich poker school is putting on (an extremely bad value) Christmas Tournament with a Buy In of €45, and then an admin fee of €15. Funny thing is, it is open to 100 players, but they are only paying out €2,000.

I saw a report on Stern TV Reportage last night. They talked about how popular poker is becoming in Germany - there are an estimated 6-8 million people who play it to some extent. They had a segment about a casino house in Leipzig that hosts its own tournaments (playing for money), and some places have "win an iPod" night - it's more for beginners, so they don't play with their own money.

Poker winnings are tax-free.

I just checked the Stern TV website and couldn't find anything on it - there is a delay between when a program is aired and when the website is updated. Sorry!

where did you hear that from? I very much doubt the Finanzamt will regard poker winnings as a tax free income!

Can you claim tax back if you lose?