It’s Christmas (lottery) time – “El Gordo” is reaching the German lottery market

Having turned on German TV or radio broadcasts during Christmas time, it was rather difficult not to know about the “El Gordo” draw in Spain. This is an obvious sign that the harmonised internal market is functioning within the EU. Well, at second sight, this situation is actually evidence for a practically functioning internal market where, according to domestic German law, there should not function an internal market. Gambling law is not harmonised across the EU and is far from being harmonised in the near future. Hence, the question arises whether such advertising is allowed under domestic German gambling law and to what extent German law might step into the pitfalls of the “non-functioning” European gambling market.