Bremen, Germany’s smallest city-state, announced on Wednesday that it had issued rejection notices to 32 establishments that had applied for betting licenses under a new gambling law, meaning any bets placed on their premises would be considered immediate effect illegal. Bookmakers have until August 5 to legally challenge the decision or provide the Senate with documents showing how they obtained the initial capital to open their businesses in the first place, such as a loan agreement with a bank. Bremen authorities say they are dealing with a problem that is not unique to their city, but is widespread across Germany. A 2019 report by the finance ministry and the federal police said that criminals not only use legal gambling practices to launder dirty money, but often directly invest money to buy betting shops. In some such cases, the entire gambling activity taking place on the store’s premises was merely “simulated,” the report said, and the profits shown on the books came from illegal activities such as drug dealing. Unlike in Britain, where most high street betting shops are run by large gaming companies such as William Hill or Ladbrokes, in Germany betting shops are mainly run by smaller businesses who buy a franchise from larger companies. “At its core, it’s about checking the reliability of these operators,” Bremen’s interior affairs senator Ulrich Mäurer told the Weser-Kurier newspaper. “We also want to guarantee that no money is laundered from pointless businesses, such as drug trafficking or human trafficking, and thus flows into legitimate money circles.” In recent months, Bremen authorities have approached four major betting companies operating in the city, asking them to provide written evidence of how their franchisees had obtained their initial capital, usually up to €120,000 (£100,000). . Subscribe to First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every morning at 7am. BST None of the betting shops had since handed over documents that met the authorities’ requirements, a spokesman for the Bremen Senate said. In one case, an application for a gambling license was rejected because the betting shop was too close to a school, not because of a lack of documents. “Other states in Germany are looking with close interest at what we are achieving by taking this step,” said spokeswoman Rose Gerds-Schiffler. “If we are successful, I expect many of them will follow suit.” The closure was criticized by Germany’s sports betting association, whose president, Mathias Dahms, said the city’s actions were “arbitrary, legally questionable and completely disproportionate, motivated by purely political goals”.
