Press release

Final Court decision: Lottery brokerage via the Internet is allowed

- First principle judgements on lottery brokerage via the Internet unappealable

- Court collection of facts: Lottery addiction non-existent

(Hamburg, 29 June 2011) Final court decision: The brokering of lotteries on the Internet, in particular of 'Lotto 6 aus 49', is allowed. Its advertising is also allowed. The judgements of the Halle administrative court dated 11 November last year on this have been in force since 28 June 2011. The state of Saxony-Anhalt finally withdrew its appeals.

The Halle administrative court has declared all restrictions of the German State Treaty on Gaming (GlüStV) inapplicable for private lottery brokers such as Tipp24. This includes being banned from the Internet, the requirement for permission to broker lotteries on the Internet as well as the ban against advertising. With its ruling, the court followed the guidelines of the European Court of Justice (EuGH), which had declared the material restrictions of the GlüStV inapplicable due to a lack of coherence and system on 8 September 2010.

In its arguments, the Halle administrative court referred to the incoherent regulations of the various gaming areas. The court determined that the restrictions for private lottery brokers are excessive. In collecting facts the court had consulted about 100 specialised clinics as well as all custody courts in Germany about the significance of the lottery within the context of gaming addiction. The analysis of the results showed that a gaming addiction essentially does not exist. A supplementary scientific analysis categorized this into the status of research.

The court thus concluded that there was no notable evidence for a risk of addiction to lotteries. However, the court continued, this would have been required to justify the drastic bans on private marketing. The bans therefore are in contravention of European law. Tipp24 does not need to observe them and may broker the lottery on the Internet without seeking permission.

The legislature must take this now legally binding collection of facts into consideration in its amendment to the GlüStV.

Dr Hans Cornehl, Tipp24 SE board member: 'The judgement confirms our long-standing experience that there are no risks associated with the marketing of a lottery. And therefore there is no longer any reason for imposing unnecessary restrictions on the private brokering of state lotteries.'

About Tipp24 SE: Tipp24 SE (formerly Tipp24 AG) was founded in September 1999 and holds equity interests in a number of companies in Spain, Italy and the UK, which enable participation in lottery-based games via the Internet, especially via the websites www.ventura24.es, www.giochi24.it, www.mylotto24.co.uk and www.tipp24.com. In Germany, Tipp24 Entertainment GmbH operates the games platform www.tipp24games.de. From its foundation to the end of 2008, Tipp24 SE brokered tickets worth over 1.5 billion euros to the state lottery companies - in recent years over 330 million euros annually. Following its successful IPO in 2005 (Prime Standard), the company was admitted to the SDAX index in June 2009 and has been trading as a European public limited company since December 2009.

Press contact:
Tipp24 SE
Andrea Fratini
Head of Media and Public Relations
Tel.: +49 40 32 55 33-660
E-mail: presse@tipp24.de
Internet: www.tipp24-se.de/presse/