In April, the offices of the sports betting provider Tipster in Cologne, Malta and Croatia were searched. It is probably the largest raid in this industry that has ever happened in Germany. The accusations against Tipster are illegal gambling, serious tax evasion and the formation of a criminal organization. Tipster is said to have had an illegal system for years, with which more than 35 million euros in tax money was evaded, say Nils Wischmeyer and Johannes Bauer from the SZ business editorial team, who are researching the gambling industry with Jörg Schmitt from the SZ investigative team.
It was completely unclear to the customers that their bets had taken different paths, according to the investigators. Depending on which machine customers placed their bet on, part of it was booked normally via a first server. However, if the bet ran on a second server, according to the investigators, the bet missed the tax authorities and flushed the backers of Tipster additional millions into the coffers.
The research by Johannes Bauer, Nils Wischmeyer and Jörg Schmitt on the subject can be found here.
The six-part podcast series “Verzockt” on sports betting can be found here.
A current interview with the federal government’s drug commissioner about addiction to gambling, which has also increased massively due to sports betting, can be found here.
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