Totalisator: Betriebserlaubnis beantragen

If you are a racing club, organize horse races and want to place bets, you need a permit to operate a totalizator.

If you are a racing or horse breeding club and wish to operate a totalizator on the racecourse on the occasion of public performance tests for horses or operate a betting office for horse races outside a racecourse, you will require a totalizator permit in accordance with the Racing Betting and Lotteries Act.

In totalizator betting, the bettors bet among themselves and not against a bookmaker. The totalizator is a procedure by which the respective odds are continuously determined from all bets placed in the run-up to the start of the race and the proper distribution of winnings is processed after the end of the race. Bets can be placed at the totalizer on the racecourse, but also at betting offices outside the racecourse.

A small portion of the betting proceeds goes directly to the racing club, which must use it exclusively for the benefit of the state horse breeding and for the organization of the horse races.

• Articles of association
• Extract from the register of associations or proof of membership in a breeders' association
• annual budget
• Annual report for the previous year
• Betting requirements
• Purchase, rental or lease agreement, if applicable
• Proof of actual power of disposal over suitable premises as a betting office outside the racecourse

• You must be a racing or horse breeding association with or without legal capacity.
• It must be clear from your articles of association that the sole purpose of the association is to promote the breeding of horses, including by organizing performance tests for horses.
• Your board members and other leading personalities of the association must provide the assurance that the purpose of the association will be realized.
• They must undertake to allow bookmakers who have been granted permission to place or broker bets on the association's racecourse to carry out their trade on race days at the racecourse against payment of a stall fee.
• The organization or brokering of gambling (horse betting) does not run counter to the defined objectives of the State Treaty on Gambling.

You apply for a totalizator permit from the Ministry for Climate Protection, Agriculture, Rural Areas and the Environment of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. You specify whether you wish to operate the totalizator at a racecourse or at a betting office outside a racecourse.

Your application will be reviewed by the competent authority.

If you meet all the requirements, you will receive a permit once the procedure has been completed.

The permit can be issued with a time limit or a reservation of revocation or be linked to a condition or a reservation of a subsequent amendment or addition to a condition. It can also be limited to individual events.

• 4 to 5 weeks

The application must be submitted at least 3 months before the race.

Anyone operating a totalisator business without a license will be punished with a prison sentence of up to two years or a fine!

Please note that you must comply with the obligations of the State Treaty on Gambling when operating a totalisator business. These are regulated in particular in Sections 1 to 3, 5 to 7 and 27 of the State Treaty on Gambling.

• Action before the administrative court

Permit to operate a totalizator

• Racing clubs that organize horse races and want to place bets require a totalisator permit
• Requirements:
  • It must be stipulated in the club's articles of association that the exclusive purpose of the club is to promote the breeding of horses in the country, including by organizing performance tests for horses.
  • Board members and other leading personalities of the association must provide assurance that the purpose of the association will be realized.
  • Obligation to allow bookmakers who have been granted permission to place or broker bets on the Association's racecourse to exercise their trade on race days at the racecourse against payment of a stall fee.
• Informal and written application
• Responsible: Ministry for Climate Protection, Agriculture, Rural Areas and the Environment M-V

Ministry for Climate Protection, Agriculture, Rural Areas and the Environment Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Department 320

• Forms available: No
• Written form required: Yes
• Informal application possible: Yes
• Personal appearance necessary: No
• Online services available: No