police
Illegal gambling: reservations about reform plans
The police union expresses concerns about Federal Justice Minister Marco Buschmann’s reform plans. photo
© Ole Spata/dpa
The Federal Minister of Justice wants to “clean out” the criminal code. There are concerns. The addiction commissioner and the GdP warn that the framework for the prosecution of illegal gambling offers should be changed.
Against the deletion of three paragraphs of the criminal code planned by Federal Justice Minister Marco Buschmann (FDP). There is resistance to gambling. Both the police union (GdP) and the federal government’s addiction commissioner have major reservations about his plans, which are part of a planned reform “to modernize the criminal code.”
He would like to support the decriminalization of people who take part in illegal gambling, as proposed in a key points paper from his ministry, the federal government’s addiction commissioner, Burkhard Blienert (SPD), wrote to the minister a few days ago. “However, I cannot in any way understand your proposed abolition of the criminal liability for illegal gambling services and I urge you to refrain from this idea,” says the letter, which is available to the German Press Agency.
Gambling addicts are particularly at risk when they take advantage of illegal offers, “due to, among other things, high speed, lack of maximum usage limits and blocking options,” he warned. In addition, the protection of minors that applies to legal gambling is missing here.
GdP: Project “highly problematic”
The key points state that there is “no discernible legal interest that would justify the maintenance of these penal norms.” Violations could be punished as an administrative offense according to the state gambling treaty. Anyone who manipulates a game can be prosecuted for fraud. In addition, depending on the circumstances of the individual case, there could be tax evasion.
The police union (GdP) considers the project overall to be “highly problematic”. She explained that practice shows that criminally relevant findings in the area of illegal gambling are usually made before tax law aspects are subsequently or parallelly pursued. Illegal gambling is also largely linked to organized crime. The associated “accompanying crime” – for example the blackmail of defaulting players, violent crimes or procurement crime – is unfortunately “already hardly in the focus of the investigative authorities”.
“The Federal Minister of Justice must not dare to go it alone on this sensitive issue,” said GdP chairman Jochen Kopelke to the dpa. Before a first draft, Buschmann had to hear from experts and involve the federal states. “The federal government cannot simply wave this project through.”
Buschmann’s point of view
Buschmann, on the other hand, is convinced that effective deterrence due to the threat of fines would continue to be guaranteed even if his reform plans were to be implemented. “The fine is anything but a triviality,” he told the dpa. “It’s about up to 500,000 euros.” The gambling regulations in the Criminal Code date back to the time when there was no State Treaty on Gambling with uniformly applicable fine regulations. Today they are superfluous.
The Federal Minister of Justice emphasized that if money was laundered, taxes were evaded or players were deceived in connection with illegal gambling, this would of course remain punishable. He said: “I am firmly convinced that both law enforcement and law enforcement authorities continue to have every opportunity to combat such organized crime structures in this area.”
In one point the GdP’s criticism differs from the position of the addiction commissioner. The union also opposes decriminalization of players. The GdP analysis of the planned reform states: “Years of practical experience have made it clear, on the one hand, that the statement behavior of the affected players does not change due to their legal status.” On the other hand, large parts of illegal gambling, especially the part of the “big game” that is associated with high and serious crime, would no longer be prosecutable. The so-called big game includes roulette and card games such as black jack or poker.