Hamburg Spielbank Targets Late October for Launch

After a three-year period of testing and efforts to gain approval from the Senate of Hamburg, the virtual doors of Hamburg Spielbank's online casino will open Oct. 28 at 6 p.m. (German Winter Time).

Operated from a bunker of sorts close to the InterContinental hotel, home of the prestigious brick-and-mortar Hamburg Spielbank, the Internet casino will feature a real roulette wheel shown live online via two Web-cams at varying angles. Players will participate and watch through secure online connections.

The entire software suite and supplemental technology solutions were developed in-house by e-dict GmbH & Co.KG, an affiliate of Spielbank Hamburg Group.

"Since the casino's focus is live gambling," stated Tim von Törne, Managing Director of e-dict, "we could not find anything close to our needs. Therefore, we built everything ourselves. We did not apply streaming video techniques like others use it, but we introduced an improved broadcasting technique of a series of snapshots, which results in an improved high broadcasting quality of each individual picture. We think that quality is essential looking at a fast moving roulette wheel."

Preceding live betting is an ongoing testing period that commenced Sept. 9. Nearly 3,000 curious gamblers have taken part.

e-dict's approach aims to bridge terrestrial and remote players; the same games can be played both online and offline. To make this possible, e-dict's developers installed a "half-automatic" roulette table in the InterContinental Spielbank, where online and offline players co-gamble via touch screens at individual stations.

The "entrance" of the casino looks simple: Each new player (from 18 years on) has to submit a copy of his identity card as well as credit card (Visa or Euro/MasterCard) information to personnel of the Spielbank in the InterContinental hotel Hamburg.

The games will initially be contained within Germany's borders, but Spielbank will explore the possibility of accepting play from outside of the country as well.

"We will definitely start by only accepting players from Germany to be able to streamline the gaming processes," von Törne explained. "Later we will disclose the preconditions for players based in other jurisdictions."

The Spielbank Hamburg Jahr & Achterfeld KG operates the following premises:

Spielbank Hamburg at the Hotel InterContinental (opened in 1978), with French and American roulette; 7-card stud; and blackjack.
Automaten-Spielbank Hamburg near the main station (opened in 1981), with slots.
Automaten-Spielbank Hamburg in the east side of town (opened in 1985), with slots and electronic French roulette.
The Kasino Reeperbahn in the red light district (opened in 1987), with slots, electronic French roulette and table games: American roulette, blackjack and poker.
Automaten-Spielbank Hamburg (opened in 1994), with slots and electronic roulette.

In 2001 the net drop of Spielbank Hamburg Jahr & Achterfeld KG was 60.4 million euros before tax (90 percent).