Measuring and Evaluating the Potential Addiction Risk of the Online Poker Game Texas Hold'em No Limit

1. Online poker requires a considerable degree of skill. In Germany, as in many other parts of the EU, it is classified as a game of chance and as such has hitherto been unregulated. Despite this ban, the German online poker market is the world's second largest. Around 10% of online poker players worldwide are from Germany, and nearly 1% of Internet users in Germany play online poker. Due to inconsistent frameworks in Germany and the EU, there is a high degree of legal uncertainty for players and providers. 2. The existing market is largely unregulated and unchecked. If the German federal states leave this market unregulated, people will continue to be forced into a ''grey area.'' This may also result in pathological gamblers not being identified, making it impossible to check and prevent them from becoming addicted. It is currently not possible to offer effective player protection because of the prevailing legal situation. The unchecked grey area also facilitates and encourages illegal money laundering in Germany and the EU. 3. The Assessment Tool to Measure and Evaluate the Risk Potential of Gambling Products (AsTERiG), developed by the Gambling Scientific Forum (Wissenschaftliches Forum Glu¨cksspiel) on the initiative of the German welfare lotteries Aktion Mensch (Action for People) and the ARD Television Lottery, provides a fundamental quantitative evaluation and assessment of the addiction potentials of the online poker game Texas Hold'em No Limit. This tool is currently the global leader and is established in scientific and medical practice. 4. Based on scores, AsTERiG measures how great the risk potential of a chance or skillbased game can be. In doing so, it also enables a direct comparison to be drawn between the addiction potentials of different gambling products. Furthermore, the tool highlights the specific risk potentials of individual games of chance or games of skill. As a result, it has established itself as an indispensable tool at a legislative, case law, and administrative level. 5. An assessment of the online poker game Texas Hold'em No Limit that has been empirically validated by inter-disciplinary experts classifies its potential addiction risk on a scale of one to five as being medium, which puts it in the same class as sports betting. A further decisive factor is said to be operator behavior, which might significantly influence the addiction potential of games of chance and games of skill. The study recommends carrying out interdisciplinary research at the European level into this causality as well.