This new decision involves a prohibition order of 6 March 2008 based on the Interstate Treaty on Gambling (Glücksspiel-Staatsvertrag) and the corresponding implementation act (Ausführungsgesetz zum Glücksspiel-Staatsvertrag – AG GlüStV). The detailed reasons are still due. However, as reported, the court had already voiced considerable doubts in the proceedings for relief from execution as to whether the new regulations could constitute a constitutional authority. The state sports betting monopoly, as a considerable interference with the private sports betting providers’ and agents’ right to choose their profession was not justifiable from a constitutional point of view.
The Administrative Court of Berlin explicitly allowed appeal against this decision which will have to be reviewed by the Administrative Court of Appeal of Berlin-Brandenburg (Oberverwaltungsgericht Berlin-Brandenburg). In view of the scope of the decision, which declares the Interstate Treaty on Gambling to be untenable and contrary to constitutional law, one has to assume that the State of Berlin will exhaust this legal remedy. For the time being, though, the state monopoly has de facto ended, since the market for sports betting in Berlin cannot be sealed off from bookmakers, licensed in other EU member states, anymore.