Association of gambling halls

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Association of Arcades
(FSH)
legal form Registered association
founding 2012
Seat Berlin
purpose Representation of the interests of amusement arcade companies in Germany
Chair Frank Waldeck
Managing directors Jasmine Rohde
Members about 100
Website fachverband-spielhallen.de

The Fachverband Spielhallen e. V. - FSH for short - is a voluntary association of companies that operate amusement arcades commercially in Germany with the aim of promoting and safeguarding the non-material, legal and economic interests of this trade. The association's tasks include, in particular, representing the interests of the arcade industry and supporting individual members, bringing about and exchanging general economic, technical and legal information for the benefit of the members, promoting the interests and reputation of the arcade industry, and settling disputes and the fight against prohibited gambling within the meaning ofCriminal code and unfair competition . Any legal (see legal person ) or natural person of legal age who operates commercial amusement arcades in Germany can become a member of the association .

Founding history

In November 2012, the association became a member of the Bundesverband Automatenunternehmer e. V. founded. The founding members and the board of directors are made up exclusively of small and medium-sized arcade operators. The intention to found a professional association as an instrument to safeguard the interests of the classic arcade operator was the structure of the slot machine industry in Germany: Currently 80 percent of the arcades are run by small and medium-sized companies, whose interests, in the opinion of the founding members, need to be represented in particular. This means that the FSH is the first and, to date, the only association in the association structure of the vending machine industry that neither represents the vending machine industry, wholesalers, nor chain stores in the branch. Since it was founded in 2012, the association has had 100 members as of October 2014.

The structure of the FSH

The board of the Fachverband Spielhallen e. V. consists - as of October 2014 - of nine board members. These are the chairman (Frank Waldeck), the deputy chairman (Andreas Braun) and the treasurer (Karl Weber). In addition, the other board members are Gundolf Aubke, Jean Pierre Berlejung, Mark Hinterholzinger, Heinz Basse, Dirk Fischer and Tobias Schneegans. The registered office of the association is in Berlin. Jasmine Rohde is the managing director. The board of directors authorized to represent is the chairman together with the deputy chairman or the treasurer. These persons represent the association in and out of court. Furthermore, the Fachverband Spielhallen e. V. has two legal advisors who both specialize in gaming law. These are specifically the specialist lawyer for labor law Tim Hilbert and the specialist lawyer for administrative law Damir Böhm.

The FSH in the association structure of the entertainment machine industry

The association structure of the entertainment machine industry can be described as not very clear. The four leading associations - Association of the German Machine Industry e. V. (VDAI), Deutscher Automaten-Großhandels-Verband e. V. (DAGV), Bundesverband Automatenunternehmer e. V. (BA) and forum for vending machine entrepreneurs in Europe e. V. (Forum) - have been united since June 2013 under the common umbrella organization “Die Deutsche Automatenwirtschaft e. V. "(DAW). According to the spokesman Georg Stecker, in order to speak together with one voice and to be able to carry the common goals more effectively into politics. In addition to this umbrella association, the association structure includes the AWI Automaten-Wirtschaftsverbände-Info GmbH, which is a kind of joint PR and communications agency for the four central associations mentioned. The Bundesverband Automatenunternehmer e. V., in turn, has a further eleven regional associations and two professional associations (Fachverband Spielhallen e.V. and Fachverband Gastronomieausstellung e.V.). This is exactly where the Fachverband Spielhallen e. V. as the transnational voice of the arcade operator. The FSH does not see itself as a competing institution to the existing associations.

Political background

Since the 1st State Treaty on Gaming (GlüÄndStV) came into force on July 1, 2012, the laws regulating the German gaming market have been significantly changed. The primary objective of the amendment to the State Treaty on Gambling , the development of gambling addiction and to prevent betting addiction and to create the conditions for an effective fight against addiction. In addition to the GlüÄndStV, the implementation provisions of the federal states as well as state gaming laws and state arcade laws regulate the law of commercial arcades, since the federalism reform I in 2006 gave the states the legislative competence for the law of the arcades. Furthermore, the law of the gambling halls is regulated in parallel in the Gaming Ordinance - as part of the trade regulations. Here, above all, technical guidelines for the type approval of gaming machines are specified (see also Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB)). In July 2013 the sixth ordinance amending the Gaming Ordinance was submitted to the Federal Council . Here, too, the protection of young people and gamblers in gaming machines is to be improved by limiting the incentives to play and the possibility of loss.

This has brought many new challenges to the machine industry that need to be implemented. This once again increases the relevance of industry associations. Here, player protection and prevention measures such as a company social concept, employee training for the early detection of problematic and pathological gaming behavior as well as new advertising guidelines should be emphasized . In addition, Article 25 of the GlüÄndStV prohibits so-called multiple concessions. A permit for a structural combination of several gambling halls can therefore no longer be granted. For the practice of arcade operators, this means that new large properties have not been licensed since 2012 - which has already stagnated the arcade market through structural preventive legislation. Multiple licenses that have already been approved with a grandfathering of five years will expire by mid-2017. These significant legal changes form the foundation of the current association work in the entertainment machine industry. The Fachverband Spielhallen e. V., representing the interests of small and medium-sized arcade operators, advocates the continued existence of its members as legal gaming providers in Germany and tries to have a significant political influence on the future of the classic arcade operator for 2017.

Core points of the association's work

The key points of the association's work result from the current situation in the entertainment machine industry. As previously explained in more detail in the political background, the goals and topics of the FSH are strongly shaped by the political guidelines and the gambling-specific laws. The association itself names the topics amusement tax , business ethics , general association work, enforcement deficit , the future of the machine industry, the public image of the machine industry and the protection of players and minors as key points . The latter correlates strongly with the topic of business ethics. The aim of the association's work is, on the one hand, to ensure the continued existence of the member companies and, on the one hand, the economically viable continued existence of legal terrestrial slot machine games in Germany - especially in contrast to the online casinos that are illegal in Germany and the spreading culture of so-called gaming cafés or tea rooms who, under the guise of license-free gastronomy, generate their sales not from the sale of coffee or tea, but from the cashier's contents of the gaming machines . The subject of the enforcement deficit also deals with illegal gambling. The commercial amusement machine industry accuses politicians, and in particular the responsible gaming supervisory authorities, of a significant enforcement deficit. For example, some large cities are currently unable to even name valid device numbers, as there is no overview of the devices installed in semi-legally operated "dummy amusement arcades". The enforcement deficit is often related to a lack of knowledge and overview. This in turn would lead to unfair competition and disadvantage commercial machine operators and their very existence. The Fachverband Spielhallen e. V. also the municipal amusement taxes on gaming machines. The revenue from the entertainment tax in the form of the “ machine tax” quadrupled between 1990 and 2012 in Germany. The main cause here is the drastic increase in tax rates in some municipalities and municipalities. The Fachverband Spielhallen e. V. advocates an objective dialogue with responsible offices and authorities in order to agree on acceptable tax rates.

The topics of corporate ethics, industry image and the protection of players and minors correlate thematically with one another. On the one hand, due to the amendment to the State Treaty on Gambling in 2012, the protection of players and minors has become increasingly relevant and, above all, has been heavily regulated by law. On the other hand, it forms the foundation of ethical corporate management in the vending machine industry. Buzzwords such as access control, social concepts for companies, self-locking and employee training for the early detection of problematic and pathological gaming can be found in all company presentations as well as in the industry's image campaigns. The aim here is, on the one hand, to stand out from illegal providers through the full implementation of the applicable laws at federal and state level and to improve the general image of the vending machine industry among the general public. The Fachverband Spielhallen e. V. classifies this topic as decisive for the future of the commercial machine industry as part of the legal gambling offer in Germany.

literature

  • D. Birk / P. Haversath: Constitutionality of the municipal amusement tax on gaming machines using the example of Berlin. In: Berlin series of publications on tax and business law. Edited by D. Birk / R. Poellath / I. Singer. Aachen 2013.
  • BJ Hartmann / B. Pieroth: casinos and amusement arcades between state, federal and union law. Two legal opinions. Baden-Baden 2013.
  • J. Trümper / C. Heimann: Structure of the offer of amusement arcades and gaming machines in Germany. Status: January 1, 2014. 12th updated and expanded edition. Unna 2014.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Source: fachverband-spielhallen.de
  2. ↑ Source www.vdai.de , www.automatenwirtschaft.de
  3. ↑ Source: www.awi-info.de
  4. ^ First State Treaty amending the State Treaty on Gambling in Germany (First State Treaty Amendment - First GlüÄndStV) § 1 sentence 1
  5. ^ BJ Hartmann / B. Pieroth: casinos and amusement arcades between state, federal and union law. Two legal opinions. Baden-Baden 2013. p. 15 ff.
  6. ^ BJ Hartmann / B. Pieroth: casinos and amusement arcades between state, federal and union law. Two legal opinions. Baden-Baden 2013. p. 33 ff.
  7. ^ First State Treaty amending the State Treaty on Gaming in Germany (First State Treaty Amendment - First GlüÄndStV) Section 6
  8. ↑ First State Treaty amending the State Treaty on Gaming in Germany (First State Treaty Amendment - First GlüÄndStV) "Guidelines for Combating and Avoiding Gambling Addiction"
  9. ^ First State Treaty amending the State Treaty on Gaming in Germany (First State Treaty Amendment - First GlüÄndStV) Section 5
  10. ^ First State Treaty amending the State Treaty on Gaming in Germany (First State Treaty Amendment - First GlüÄndStV) Section 25
  11. ↑ J. Trümper / C. Heimann: Structure of the offer of amusement arcades and gaming machines in Germany. Status: January 1, 2014. 12th updated and expanded edition. Unna 2014. p. 23
  12. ↑ J. Trümper / C. Heimann: Structure of the offer of amusement arcades and gaming machines in Germany. Status: January 1, 2014. 12th updated and expanded edition. Unna 2014. p. 23
  13. ↑ Machine market. Mirror of the industry. Edition 04/14. P. 18–20 ( Memento of the original from October 27, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.muenzspielpartner.de
  14. ↑ J. Trümper / C. Heimann: Structure of the offer of amusement arcades and gaming machines in Germany. Status: January 1, 2014. 12th updated and expanded edition. Unna 2014. p. 23
  15. ↑ Source: fachverband-spielhallen.de
  16. ↑ D. Birk / P. Haversath: Constitutionality of the municipal amusement tax on gaming machines using the example of Berlin. In: Berlin series of publications on tax and business law. Edited by D. Birk / R. Poellath / I. Singer. Aachen 2013. p. 1
  17. ↑ Source: fachverband-spielhallen.de