First Casualty of Germany’s Online Gambling Ban

February 12, 2008

Get Minted.com has announced that they are no longer going to continue doing business. The online gambling company says that with the German ban being put into effect on January 1st, they can no longer compete in the market and has to exit the German online gambling market.

They have announced to their players that as much as they regret having to do so, they are going to have to suspend all of their online gambling clients’ accounts as of March 1st. They are asking them to log in and withdraw any and all funds from their online gambling accounts before they are frozen.

For other countries they will be able to continue to play, but German players will not be allowed on the site. According to German rule, outside online gambling sites are not allowed to advertise or run within the country, and anyone caught doing so will face prosecution. This applies to their residents as well, and they are expected to patronize online gambling sites from Germany only.

As of March 1st there will be a log in attached to the site that will block all German online gamblers. If they do not have their funds withdrawn by that time they will no longer have access to them. They say that they hope that some day they will be able to offer online gambling services to the residents of Germany again, but at this time it does not seem likely that it will be in the near future.

The company has apologized profusely for the problem, but insists that Germany’s laws are completely out of their control.




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