Das staatliche Sportwettenmonopol in Deutschland - Fessel oder Schutzschild?

This paper analyzes the state-monopoly in the German betting market, which has been reinforced by the new treaty put into force in 2008. We analyze possible economic justifications for the monopoly and give furthermore an overview over the evolution of the case-law since the nineties, since some of these verdicts have set the decisive impulses for changes during the last years. It clearly emerges a difficulty of finding a consistent economic rationale for the monopoly and that it only could rely on strong negative external effects caused by gambling addiction. This threat has also been considered in the sentences of the German Federal Constitutional Court and of the European Court of Justice, both indicating it as a possible justification for the state-monopoly, which would otherwise be in compatible with European competition law