SOURCE: Reuters

(Berlin, DE and Vienna, AT) — Austrian Internet bookmaker bwin Interactive Entertainment can continue to offer sports betting in Germany with minor restrictions after rulings by a German regional court published on Thursday.

The company, embroiled in legal quagmire with several German states, can continue to operate in the former Communist East Germany under a licence issued days before German reunification in 1990, according to the court in the German state of Saxony.

The court ruled that this licence also covered arranging bets over the Internet, a decision which could undermine German plans to outlaw Internet gambling in new legislation planned to become effective next year. Bwin cheered the ruling.

"We welcome the decision because it confirms the license and makes clear that the planned Gambling Law can't be realised," a spokesman for bwin's German arm bwin e.K. said.

Shares in bwin, which sometimes move strongly after court decisions, traded down 0.9 percent by 1:50 p.m. (British time) in a weak Austrian market where the ATX index was down 1.8 percent.

In a drawback for bwin, the court also said the license was not valid in the western part of the country -- contradicting other courts in western German states which have deemed the license valid.

Bwin will have to request users to disclose where they are based to make sure only east German users are allowed, according to the court's decision, which is final.

The bwin spokesman said the company would obey the ruling but said western Germans could be diverted to bwin's international web site bwin.com -- which operates under a license issued by the British Overseas territory of Gibraltar.

Bwin.com's right to arrange sports bets with German-based users is also contested by German authorities but so far has not been definitively outlawed.

In a separate decision, the Saxon court endorsed a ban on bwin.com in Saxony, where users can also alternatively use the German offering.