Germany’s joint gambling authority appoints new leaders ahead of 2023 takeover
Schleswig-Holstein gambling chief Ronald Benter recruited to run Glücksspielbehörde alongside Benjamin Schwanke
The joint gambling authority of Germany’s federal states (Glücksspielbehörde) witnessed a major change in its top brass last week as Ronald Benter and Benjamin Schwanke were hired to lead the regulator.
The duo were appointed on 30 September. Benter previously managed the gaming and municipal business law department in the Schleswig-Holstein Ministry of the Interior, while Schwanke worked in Hamburg’s Ministry of the Interior and Sports as the head of the Hamburg Gambling Authority.
The new regulator will oversee the majority of regulation as set out in Germany’s State Treaty on Gambling (GlüStV 2021), which came into force on 1 July 2021.
Regulatory duties will be carried out by the federal states’ joint gaming authority as planned from January 2023, with a projection of strongarming the authority with a total of 110 employees.
“Our task for the next one and a half years is initially to set up the authority in such a way that it is able to act,” Benter said.
“We are now creating the conditions for regulating the gaming market more effectively from 2023 by examining and approving international gaming offers to ensure that the permitted gaming providers comply with the rules to protect players against gambling addiction and manipulation and fight offers that do not implement these rules,” he added.
In the interim, the responsibility to regulate the country’s online gambling market will remain with the Saxony-Anhalt State Administration Office.
In mid-2022, the first tasks will be transferred to Glücksspielbehörde.
“I am delighted that, with Ronald Benter and Benjamin Schwanke, we have two proven experts in the field of gaming law and the gaming industry for the task of regulating the transnational gambling market,” said Anne Poggemann, Saxony-Anhalt’s State Secretary for Home Affairs and Sport and chairperson of Glücksspielbehörde.
EGR understands combatting illegal gambling advertising has been highlighted as a primary area of concern for Glücksspielbehörde.
The task of payment blocking illegal operators will be carried out centrally for all states by the Ministry of the Interior in Lower Saxony until 30 June 2022.