Protests Occur in Lower Saxony over Shutting Down Gaming Centers
As of July 1, 2017, the revised State Treaty on Gambling will take effect all over Germany. This means that in Lower Saxony, nearly half of the roughly 2,000 gaming arcades will be shut down. An estimated 3,000 jobs will also disappear due to these closures. A controversial lottery system will be utilized to determine which venues must shut down. Employees in Hanover held a demonstration against the closures on May 16, expressing their outrage over the loss of jobs and what they perceive as an indifferent decision-making process. There is also growing opposition to the current process in the state legislature.
The State Treaty on Gambling from July 1, 2012 sets stringent measures to prevent gambling addiction. One of these measures is the stipulation of minimum distances between gambling establishments and locales frequented by children and teenagers. The federal states were tasked with enacting their own legislation to implement these measures. Lower Saxony agreed on a minimum distance of 100 meters between gaming arcades. In contrast, Bavaria set a minimum distance of 250 meters, while North Rhine-Westphalia went with 350 meters. While there was a five-year transition period, legislators in Lower Saxony have not been able to create objective criteria for deciding whether to close or maintain an arcade. Consequently, many municipalities have resorted to holding lottery decisions for the establishments' futures.
As criticism of the perceived arbitrary lottery process grows, employees take to the streets
The NDR and Hannoversche Allgemeine news outlets, among others, reported on protests by 1,500 arcade employees in Hanover last week. Under the banner reading "First go, then unemployed!", they voiced their dissatisfaction with the disregard for potential hardship cases. It is worth noting that the state of Lower Saxony has interpreted the hardship regulations very strictly-meaning exceptions to the law are granted infrequently.
Recent guidelines also involve networked arcades. The lack of clear-cut criteria for ascertaining the operating license of a gaming arcade is also causing a ruckus. While Lower Saxony's Economic Minister Olaf Lies backs the lottery system as being fair and objective, it feels arbitrary to those directly affected.
A recent legal verdict by the Osnabrück Administrative Court may offer employees some hope. On May 17th, the court partially dismissed complaints from four gambling operators. During the course of its ruling, it noted that while there were no legal concerns about the constitutionality of the ban on multiple gambling permits or the minimum distance requirement for gaming arcades, the lottery process itself was not conducted appropriately. The press release read:
'The city [Osnabrück, editor's note] should have examined the following objective selection criteria for each individual arcade - operator reliability, probity, age of the arcade, arcade location in relation to youth-frequented facilities, the social concept's quality, the economic significance of the closure for the arcade operators, and the maximum utilization of the surrounding area's capacity - on a case-by-case basis.
A lottery procedure should have only been adopted if the arcade operators demonstrated that they were of equal merit after assessing these conditions. Until the city of Osnabrück adequately considers these criteria, the arcades are not to be closed. The court overturned the rejection notices for the gambling licenses in question. However, the decision is not yet final and can still be appealed at the Higher Administrative Court in Lüneburg. This is merely one instance of the numerous lawsuits taking place throughout Germany over the implementation of the minimum distance regulation. As a result, Adrian Mohr and Reinhold Hilbers from the CDU submitted a written query to the state parliament.
The state government is expected to clarify whether the changes to the law will be enforced considering the legal uncertainties. With nearly 3,000 occupations in jeopardy, the ongoing debates at various levels leave affected employees feeling continuously uncertain about their professional future.
Read also:
- Remaining contenders down to two in DFB's struggle versus Brazil.
- Schalke's Transfer Assessment: A Season of Wastefulness
- Shocking development in the NBA!
- Law enforcement agencies in various metropolises plan expansive measures for May 1.
Source: www.onlinecasinosdeutschland.com
