The picture for German casinos should be rosier
IN stark contrast with many other developed nations still recovering from the economic malaise associated with the recession, Germany has seen its non-seasonally adjusted gross domestic product (GDP) increase by nearly four per cent since 2007.
This would seemingly mean that citizens of Europe’s largest economy have more money in their pockets to spend on gaming but the nation’s land-based casino industry has instead seen total gross gaming revenues (GGR) decrease with 2012’s figure of $852.73m, representing a drop of 3.8 per cent year-on-year.
In fact, total revenues including tips from the nation’s casinos have fallen by nearly five per cent since 2010’s $896.37m, with the overall number of visitors eight per cent lower over the same period at 5.87m.
Licensed and regulated on a state level and subject to tax rates that can reach as high as 90 per cent of a venue’s GGR, Germany’s 71 venues are run by a combination of state-owned and private operators and sent a total of $382.05m to the nation’s treasuries in 2012, which is surprisingly only two per cent less than for the previous year.
“Taxes are one of the main things affecting the current financial situation of land-based casinos in Germany,” said Matthias Hein, chief executive officer of operator Spielbank Schleswig-Holstein GmbH.
Read the full article in the March issue of InterGaming
