Operators question the figures as regulator’s report shows rise in German gambling revenue
The GGL says gross gambling revenue rose by 5 per cent in 2025.
Germany.- The German gambling regulator GGL has published its annual activity report for 2024, and it’s proving to be controversial.
The regulator’s figures show that gross gambling revenue from the licensed market in 2024 was up by 5 per cent year on year at €14.4bn. That compares to growth of 2 per cent in the previous year. Tax and levies on gambling totalled €7bn, compared to €6.6bn in 2023.
The GGL highlighted its work to tackle unlicensed gambling. It says it reviewed over 1,700 websites and launched 231 prohibition proceedings in 2024. That compares to 133 cases in 2023.
The regulator says that around 450 illegal gambling sites are no longer accessible in Germany due to prohibition orders while 657 were no longer accessible due to geo-blocking based on the Digital Services Act (DSA).
The GGL also welcomed the impact of changes to Google’s advertising rules in September. The search giant now only allows ads from licensed gambling operators in Germany, which the GGL says has “significantly reduced the visibility of illegal offers”.
The regulator estimates that unlicensed operators took between €500m and €600m in bets in 2024, compared to between €400m and €600m in 2023. That would represent around 3 to 4 per cent of the entire German gambling market, while the GGL also estimates that illegal operators account for 25 per cent of more risky online gambling, such as online slots.
The GGL said it expects more court rulings and plans to increase its monitoring of advertising. It also highlighted the development of safe servers to allow more precise monitoring of the licensed gambling market.
“Our measures are having an impact,” said GGL chief executive Ronald Benter said. “Nevertheless, combating illegal offerings remains challenging and requires perseverance and close cooperation with national and international partners.”
He added: “Our stated goal is to make the business model of illegal providers unattractive through a comprehensive package of measures. Combating illegal offerings remains a long-term process that requires strategic action, decisive action, and close interagency cooperation.”
However, licensed operators continue to argue that the real size of the unlicensed market is much bigger than what the regulator’s figures suggest. They note that a 2023 study by the University of Leipzig commissioned by the industry associations DOCV and DSWV suggested that the rate of channelisation of gambling in Germany to licensed operators was barely more than 50 per cent.
Writing on Linkedin, Christian Heins, the director of igaming at Tipico, said of the GGL’s new report: “My initial impression is very mixed both in terms of the figures and the dates in the timelines. For example, the report states that the success of the first Google directive became apparent in December 2024. However, we’ve been closely monitoring the advertising market, and in December, the figures merely returned to July levels and remained stable through January 2025.
“In fact, they only started dropping afterwards – and not because of the advertising guideline (which initially caused a spike – the opposite effect), but rather due to systematic reporting of black market operators and increased pressure on Google.
“The online casino black market isn’t separately quantified in the report. Instead, the GGL boldly claims that the combined black market for online casinos, sports betting, poker, and secondary lotteries amounts to €500–600 million in GGR (gross gaming revenue). I believe that the online casino black market alone could easily be worth €1.5–2bn in GGR.”
He added: “Additionally, the reported figures for the legal online casino market are hard to reconcile with the actual tax revenue, which has dropped significantly, even though the GGL claims the legal market has grown substantially. The RTP (return to player) has only slightly decreased from 88.7 per cent to 88.5 per cent (according to GGL). Maybe it’s just Friday evening brain fog – but those numbers just don’t seem to add up for me.”
