Investigative report criticises monitoring of German deposit limits for online gambling
A journal has reported that quick credit checks and a lack of cross-operator monitoring allow players to easily surpass deposit limits.
Germany.- It’s been reported that a lack of supervision is allowing German consumers to evade the country’s $1,000 deposit limit for online gambling. Imposed under the Fourth Interstate Treaty on Gambling (GlüNeuRStV), the limit is supposed to apply across all operators, but the journal, Investigate Europe, claims that players evade the limit by gambling with different operators.
Germany’s gambling legislation allows players to increase their deposit limits to €10,000, but they must request this, and operators must perform checks on player income via tax records or other direct sources before accepting the request. However, Investigate Europe accuses German states of reaching a “secret agreement” to allow online gambling operators to bypass the proper financial checks by using a simple credit check via the Schufa platform, known as a Shufa-G query.
The report notes that, according to the GGL, there are now around 300,000 players with a deposit limit of more than €1,000 a month. The article also claims that players can easily bypass deposit limits due to a lack of cross-operator checks on how much they deposit. The enforcement of the €1,000 deposit limit is supposed to be monitored by the gambling evaluation system LUGAS run by the federal gambling regulator, the GGL.
The idea of a conspiracy sounds far-fetched considering that German states haven’t exactly been accommodating to the requests of online gambling operators in the past, establishing a regime with tight regulations and a high tax rate, which licensees have claimed favours the black market. However, the report has prompted criticism of the GGL.
Bremen senator Ulrich Mäurer claimed that “the approval of Schufa-G contradicts the objectives of the State Treaty on Gambling and must be prohibited immediately”. The Regional Court of Lüneburg has ruled that Schufa-G queries do not meet the legal requirements to prove economic conditions.
The article also claims that gambling operators are being allowed to offer live bets, which are prohibited under German gambling legislation.
The trade body Deutscher Sportwettenverband (DSWV) accused the journal of “unfounded scandalisation” and denied any secret agreement to allow Schufa-G checks.
It said: “DSWV maintains that the use of Schufa-G credit checks is an appropriate tool for evaluating a customer’s financial standing. However, Schufa-G checks and other financial assessments cannot overlook persistent failures in the LUGAS system, which undermine the protection of German consumers.”
It added: “The question of how exactly a player can prove his financial standing is complex and not defined in gambling law.”
DSWV complains there are still major discrepancies in the reporting of data from the gambling sector, partly due to weaknesses in LUGAS. It has also found fault with media repetition of questioned statistics on problem gambling. Meanwhile, the association warns that German gamblers are increasingly turning to the black market, with over 50 per cent of gamblers using unlicensed providers in 2023.
Meanwhile, another state will allow regulated online casino gaming in Germany. Baden-Württemberg in the southwest will follow the leads of North Rhine-Westphalia and Schleswig-Holstein.
