From 1st of July onwards, new regulatory changes for Slots & Poker are coming into effect. As part of the new regulation, a mandatory 5,3% tax on gaming stakes will be applied on all legally operating providers in Germany.
Given the new regulatory environment, our aim is always to minimize disruption and be as competitive as possible in our offerings and we believe the decision to minimize increased cost to players, across the bulk of our offering is the most player-centric decision that we can make, at this stage.
We have made the decision NOT to increase our fees, at most available levels & game types, to show our commitment to players and the market. Furthermore, we also believe that there will be knock effects in market volume & liquidity as a result of this tax introduction. However, this commitment requires us to make some changes, in some areas as the cost is punitive, and unless we make other changes, our Poker business will not be commercially competitive.
High Stakes Cash & FF: We are having to remove certain high stakes Cash & fastforward games due to the punitive nature of the 5,3% buy-in tax. It is unfortunate that the games won’t run and that players at higher stakes are now penalized by game selection being reduced. Therefore, we have to adjust our product offerings as follows:
- Cash Games: Stakes at $2/$5 and upwards will be removed
- FF: The $2/$5 stake will be removed
SNG Games: We have made the decision to adjust Sit & Go fees for Sit & Go players as we don’t see the cost having a material impact on the volume or liquidity at this level.
SPINS: there are no changes to SPINS fees currently planned.
Multi Table Tournaments – there are no changes to tournament fees currently planned.
We believe that the changes that we are making balance both our overall focus on sustainable markets, with what need to do as a business to ensure that we are running a commercially viable and competitive Poker room and what is the best that we can do for players. We are a customer-centric business and we want to support our players in the best way we can, whilst also ensuring that our business remains competitive.