With the full impact of the Inter-State Treaty on the gaming industry emerging one by one, the number of arcades and numbers of German commercial machines operating in 2020 will drop dramatically. It is expected that the ceiling of 9,000 arcades of a couple of years ago, could fall by as much as 60 per cent if the obligations under the treaty are fully met by the 16 German states.

It is anticipated that some will not apply the ban rigorously, but many will. The key element in the rules is the banning of multiple-licences; the clustering of separate arcades within one building to overcome the limit of 10 or 12 AWPs in each arcade or licence. As many as a dozen licenses are clustered under this process, but it is now banned by the treaty, dramatically reducing the number of arcades and therefore the established base of 220,000 AWP machines.

The key date is July 1, 2021, by which time the offending sites should close and reduce to one licence and even then they have to be at least 500 metres from another licence. The current rules have provided some relief in the ability of a state of offer a temporary extension to multiple licensing, with up to three permitted to cluster. So far only Bavaria, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony-Anhalt have indicated that they will permit this concession. (2020/12/24)