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A new coalition backed by more than a dozen private and public gambling addiction organizations, along with sports fan groups, has said it will lobby for the severest possible restrictions on German gambling advertising.
The group, the Alliance Against Sports Betting Advertising (BgSwW), debuted its slogan on Tuesday (August 2), “For real sports. Without ripoff.”
The move follows bans or severe restrictions on gambling advertising in several countries including Spain, Belgium and Italy.
Groups include the Federal Association for Self-Help Gambling Addiction, Schleswig-Holstein’s State Office for Addiction Questions, Bavaria’s State Office for Gambling Addiction, Frankfurt am Main’s Preventive Protection of Minors, Transparency International Germany and fan group Our Curve.
“Sports-betting advertising monopolises fan culture and normalises the existence of bets in the sports context without adequately pointing out the problems and without offering adequate protection for minors,” said Markus Sotirianos of Our Curve.
“Those interested in football can hardly escape the advertising, which is why we have now crossed the tolerable limit,” he said.
The group said it is focusing on sports betting rather than online casino games because it has “the greatest public visibility”.
The coalition said it is also not opposed to gambling but is pressing for stricter advertising regulation because “the problem is insufficiently regulated advertising paired with insufficiently developed youth and player protection”.
"Advertising for sports betting must be kept to an absolute minimum for reasons of youth and player protection,” said Konrad Landgraf of the Gaming Addiction Office in Bavaria.
As of July 7, there were three virtual slots licensees, and about three dozen companies with sports-betting licences, in Germany.
A spokesman for the German Sports Betting Association (DSWV) said the organisation is not yet ready to make a statement.
Germany’s sports-betting industry is currently wrangling with the city-state of Bremen, which is trying to close all betting shops, claiming they are fronts for money laundering.