German Ban on Online Poker

Private companies that run online gambling and poker have been slapped with a ban by German authorities as of the first day of the new year. The ban, which set out to protect the gambling monopolies running in Germany, allows the German states to make it illegal for banks and other financial institutions to deal with companies that work with online gambling. This is much like the US legislation known as the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act that caused a lot of grumbling in the online poker community. This ban will likely be fought in court by the European Union, much like the UIGEA was.