The coronavirus has paralyzed the German economy. Schools and daycare centers are closed nationwide, clubs, hotels, and businesses have ceased to operate or have reduced significantly.
The closures also affect gambling halls, casinos and sports betting offices in order to counter the spread of the virus and to relieve the burden on health systems.
With the closure of the venues and the cancellation of events, Germany joins the measures that took effect last week in the European countries of the Czech Republic, Italy, Spain, and France.
PokerStars has canceled all European live events, the King’s Casino in Rozvadov and the Grand Casino Aš in the Czech Republic have been closed for 30 days.
In the midst of this crisis, however, online gaming operations such as poker (dewapokeronline.co) and lotto are still ongoing.
Casinos are closed throughout Germany
The gaming operations of all casinos nationwide were completely stopped at all several locations. Various websites state that due to the current development of the corona pandemic and the official regulations for curbing the coronavirus, regular operations will be closed and reopening will be announced on their homepage and on their Facebook pages.
Even in North Rhine-Westphalia, players have to do without roulette, poker and slot machines. The locations of the Westspiel casinos in Aachen, Bad Oeynhausen, Duisburg, and Dortmund as well as in Bremen and Bremerhaven have reacted to the situation:
The managing directors Georg Lucht and Jochen Braun stated that this decision was not an easy one for them, but that it was the right thing to do in this present situation. In addition, this measure is intended to support efforts to manage the virus.
The casinos in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg also joined. The locations in Stuttgart, Constance and Baden-Baden were closed on Friday.
According to the managing director, Otto Wulferding, measures were taken to protect guests and employees in all three houses as soon as the Corona cases became known.
Wulferding continued:
“The health of our employees, as well as our visitors and guests in the casinos, is more important to us than anything else.”
The economic impact is currently difficult to predict. Not only the gaming industry could suffer billions of dollars in losses from Covid-19.