The European Commission (EC) said on Friday that a 64.8 million euro German public capital injection granted to the casino operator WestSpiel violates European Union (EU) rules on state aid.
Brussels said in a statement that Germany must now recover the public aid, including interest. In December 2019, the EC opened an in-depth investigation to analyze whether the public financing granted by Germany to WestSpiel complied with EU rules on state aid.
The Commission's investigation covered two measures in favor of the casino operator taken by the bank NRW.BANK, 100% owned by the German federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
These were an annual loss coverage in the years 2009 to 2015 amounting to approximately 63.6 million euros and a capital injection in 2015 amounting to 64.8 million.
Following the investigation, Brussels concluded that the annual loss cover does not constitute State aid and does not provide an economic advantage to WestSpiel.
However, the Commission did find that the capital injection in 2015 is incompatible with the EU club's State aid rules. It stressed that in this case an economic advantage is given to WestSpiel, since the decision to inject additional capital into a company, despite its continuously negative financial situation, was not the one that a comparable private investor would have chosen.
The EC thus ordered Germany to recover the 64.8 million euros, plus interest, from WestSpiel.
