An Online Casino Bites the Dust
Although Get Minted internet gambling site isn’t exiting the internet gambling
industry completely, German internet gamblers will no longer have access to the
site as of March 1, 2008. The German government announced an online casinos
gambling ban effective January 1, 2008, and though the ban is highly
controversial and violates EU principles of free trade, Get Minted has chosen to
exit the German gambling market until the European Commission solves the current
dispute with the German government.
The Get Minted online casinos gambling site has already stopped allowing German
gamblers access to the site effective February 8, 2008, and has announced that
players have until March 1, 2008 log into their existing accounts and withdraw
account balances.
The German government passed legislation that now makes Germany operating an
online casinos gambling monopoly – an activity that doesn’t sit well with the
European Commission. Germany is the third EU member state to implement an
internet gambling ban that protects a state-run monopoly, and all three
countries could face charges in the European Court of Justice if they continue
to ban other EU states access to their gambling markets. The three EU member
states with discriminatory online casinos gambling policies include: Sweden, the
Netherlands, and now Germany. Some in the industry speculate that Austria may
join that list although that remains speculation at this point.
The European Commission continues to put pressure on the German government to
reverse the ban – should that happen Get Minted has commented that it would
consider reentering the German online casinos gambling industry. But until
Germany reverses the current gambling ban all players based out of Germany will
be blocked from even logging into the Get Minted site after March 1st. |