A few weeks ago, Merkur Gaming shocked its German players by having all their games removed by geo-blocking. This week, Novomatic surprises everyone with the same move: All online slots have been removed for German players and it seems like a very short-term decision, as only a few days after some of the games were launched at Casumo, the slots disappeared again from there site. Among others, OVO Casino and VIKS Casino informed us that all games from Greentube, the online distributor of the popular Novoline slot machines, have been removed from the pages and are therefore no longer available for German players.
The decision comes as a surprise for several reasons. While Merkur Gamings withdrawal from the German market was officially justified with a court decision on the legality of online gambling and unofficially was connected to the Paradise Papers revelations, Greentube didn’t comment about its decision to leave the lucrative German market and therefore leaves room for speculation. Legal pressure is less to be feared than only a few weeks ago. The federal government just revoked plans for a revision of the State Treaty on Gaming which was planned for 2018 and was supposed to provide stronger restrictions for casinos, poker providers and sports betting on the Internet. However, the federal states of Schleswig-Holstein, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rheinland-Pfalz and Hessen refused to give their consent, so the contract will not be concluded until further notice.
On the other hand, the EU stopped its investigation into the conflict of the existing treaty with existing EU law a few weeks ago with no result. The reasons for this are unclear. It was only stated that more than 130 similar investigations have been discontinued to reduce effort, unless the procedures were of particular urgency. However, an optimistic interpretation of the facts could suggest that Germany is planning to regulate gambling on the Internet which would make the EU investigation obsolete. If the protests towards the amendment of the state treaty prove successful, there could be a nationwide adjustment based on the model of a temporary solution in the state of Schleswig-Holstein, which left the treaty in the meantime, and granted temporary licenses to online casinos.
Since licenses of any kind usually are only awarded to providers with "clean hands", it would be a strategically comprehensible move by Merkur and Novoline to withdraw from the unregulated, grey market at present, in order to have better chances with a later licensing assignment. For the moment however, players will have to wait and find alternatives. Popular Novomatic games like Book of Ra already have several good clones like Book of Dead by Play' N' Go, for a full list of alternatives of your favourite slots visit this thread here.
By the way, one casino has a very special way of dealing with the situation: Stargames Casino doesn't offer any real money games any longer. Instead, they let players play in play money mode and make them pay for it. The credits required for the demo mode are not provided for free, but must be purchased with real money. However, since you don't get anything in return for this except the demo mode of the games, we can only advise players to keep clear of this site in future.
ilovefroce
6 years ago
That's really miserable. You can no longer play Novomatic and Merkur. 2 of my favorite casinos have closed really sad.
Das ist echt miserabel. Novomatic und Merkur darf man nicht mehr spielen. 2 meiner Lieblings casinos haben dicht gemacht echt traurig.
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Yautjazz
6 years ago
That's not so good news, I think it's kind of a shame that I personally like the Novomatic slots more than those from Merkur. The Stargames Online Casino is closing its doors doesn't really bother me personally, because I haven't really heard anything good about Stargames from some users.
Das ist eine nicht so gute Nachricht,finde ich irgendwie Schade die Novomatic slots gefallen mir persönlich mehr als die von Merkur. Das Stargames Online Casino seine pforten schließt stört mich persönlich nicht wirklich,da ich von einigen nutzern nicht wirklich was gutes über stargames gehört habe.
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Sylvanas
6 years ago
I was shocked to read that too. ''Deutsche Qualität'' from an intrinsically German company, for everyone but Germans. And now this! Why did they abort investigations into their gambling situation, they are an EU member and should stop with this ridicoulous ban, there's no other EU country that strict, not even in the north....
I was shocked to read that too. ''Deutsche Qualität'' from an intrinsically German company, for everyone but Germans. And now this! Why did they abort investigations into their gambling situation, they are an EU member and should stop with this ridicoulous ban, there's no other EU country that strict, not even in the north.
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bruno234
6 years ago
May be Novomatic thought like "Mercur gaming were catched?, next ones will be us, lets get out of here before happens"
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zuga
6 years ago
man this sucks....greentube must be afraid of potential legal action against them.
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ChokeDee
6 years ago
Poor Novomatic fans. It's a shame that we are losing more and more casino providers. It won't shock me though if you can't play online casino no more in the future when you live in Germany. I myself don't really play Novomatic so it doesn't really affect me.
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AKQJT
6 years ago
It s regretfull that Novomatic games are no more available for german and some of the EU countries, i can understand that the EU policies are changing on certain countries and are restricting some gambling compagnies but in the 2018 year it should be demacracy and liberty of action you can do what you want until you don...
It s regretfull that Novomatic games are no more available for german and some of the EU countries, i can understand that the EU policies are changing on certain countries and are restricting some gambling compagnies but in the 2018 year it should be demacracy and liberty of action you can do what you want until you don t touch other poeple rights so i don t understand what s the problem if these kind of restrictions are growing up day after day. One day maybe gambling will be restricted everywhere !!! ???
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jade
6 years ago
German players are really getting a bad deal! Novomatic aren't even being influenced by their own court order, but by the court order of Merkur, at least it looks that way. This sounds like a very political move for Novomatic. What other reason could they have to voluntarily remove themselves from a lucrative market....
German players are really getting a bad deal! Novomatic aren't even being influenced by their own court order, but by the court order of Merkur, at least it looks that way. This sounds like a very political move for Novomatic. What other reason could they have to voluntarily remove themselves from a lucrative market. I guess the clones will have to do for now. German players aren't dumb enough to actually pay for credits to play games for free at Stargames Casino. In fact, that kind of move is just suicide, if you ask me!
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