Germany Delays Gambling Plans

Emerging reports from the Bloomberg news service, suggest that the state of Germany's plans to introduce a law upholding a state monopoly on gambling that may banish private lottery agents and sports betting companies have been postponed.

Prime minister of Lower Saxony, Christian Wulff, told journalists at a press conference in Berlin that the planned new law will come into effect in January, 2008.

State ministers who met in Germany yesterday, agreed to sign the proposal next year. According to Wulff, this is done to extend state monopolies on gambling for a further four years and notify the cEuropean Union's Commission of the decision.

The Federal Constitutional Court ruled in March of this year, that the German states, only by boosting efforts to fight gambling addiction, can uphold their monopoly. This has lead to the banning of Bwin Interactive Entertainment AG, the Austrian online gaming operator, plus the boycotting of Fluxx AG to drive out competition.

Wulff said "The constitutional court gave us clear guidance,. "We want to prevent the creation of gambling addiction and fight existing addiction effectively.'