About this app
What is Scratch Map?
Playtech revenue increased 10% year-on-year in its H1 to €425.1 million, powered by what the company described as “exceptional growth” for its B2B business in North America.
Revenue from the US and Canada surged 161% year-on-year to €56.9 million.
The company’s adjusted EBITDA also rose 77% to €162.5 million, with B2B accounting for €128.1 million of that total.
About Scratch Map
Andreas Braun, owner of four arcades in Wiesbaden, filed an objection and constitutional complaint against the tax rate in April last year according to local reporting. He argued that the tax rise had provided a ‘strangling’ effect to business and that it consumed operator profits.
According to a high court ruling from over a decade ago, the tax rise cannot be allowed to rise to the point of ‘consuming livelihoods’.
“If the tax burden alone makes it impossible to establish the occupation of slot machine operators as the economic basis of one’s livelihood within the municipality,” the ruling said.
About Scratch Map
The GMI, know locally as EEE, is described as a “residual payment to guarantee and legal minimum income for all residents”.
Anyone residing in Cyprus, with income not high enough to support their basic needs, is eligible for the benefit.
Cyprus is not the first market to consider whether to block its welfare recipients from using their benefits to gamble, Brazil introduced a similar ban in 2025.
