The Gambling Treaty Costs the States more than 14 Billion USD

Lottery companies provided financial assistance in many areas. For example, they helped young sporting talents to go to the Olympics, they helped with the preservation of cultural monuments and supported youth orchestras. Whether this financial aid could be sustained for a long period of time or not was still questionable for in 2005, there were 5 billion USD were available in taxes and incomes, while in 2011 the sum decreased to 3.5 billion USD. This decrease was due to the treaty on gaming signed in 2008, which forced lotteries to slash their generous support.

Even if the revenues remained constant in 2010 and 2011, the revenue losses added up to 13.8 billion USD until the end of 2011, when the treaty was suspended. The treaty is important even with online casino.
A total of about 6.2 billion USD in taxes and duties were lost. These figures did not have anything to do with the decline of profits of lotteries and casino operators. Therefore, the lottery association called for an immediate reevaluation of the situation. Norman Faber, President of the Lottery Association, said: "The longer the misery is maintained, the harder it will be to stop the downward trend, let alone reverse the situation." The online casino are also included in this.

The treaty on gaming, which was legally and politically controversial, included significant advertising restrictions, a ban on internet sales and other restrictions in an attempt to combat the problem of gambling addiction. Although addiction experts assessed the risk of addiction to the classic Lotto 6 out of 49 and to the lower class lotteries, the treaty on gaming only considered their negative effects. On the other hand, the revenues from slots rose from 5.5 billion USD in 2005 to 8.1 billion USD in 2008.

"This clearly shows that the stated aim of the treaty, namely the avoidance of gambling addiction, is completely absurd," said Faber. Therefore, the lottery association required an immediate reduction of the advertising campaings and sales restrictions on innocent lotteries.

A forecast published in 2008 associated the total losses of revenue that started at around 5 million USD with the rapid decline in gambling revenues.

Class lotteries, casinos, lottery outlets and thousands of commercial gaming agents are threatened by the treaty on gaming and thousands of jobs are in imminent danger.