Regulation · Treaty

The German State Treaty on Gambling 2021

The Glücksspielstaatsvertrag 2021 — the interstate treaty on gambling, usually shortened to GlüStV — came into force on 1 July 2021 and is the document every other rule on this site hangs from. It is not a federal act: it is an agreement between the sixteen federal states, each of which enacts it as state law. It made online slots, poker and sports betting licensable for the first time, created a nationwide exclusion register and a cross-operator deposit limit, and deliberately left two large areas with the individual states. Supervision passed fully to the GGL on 1 January 2023.

By the Casinohafen deskUpdated: 16 October 2026Checked: September 2026

In brief

In force since 1 July 2021; the Gemeinsame Glücksspielbehörde der Länder (GGL) has been fully competent since 1 January 2023.
Licensable forms: virtual slot machines, online poker, sports betting and horse race betting on the internet — each as a separate permission.
Left with the individual federal states: the Spielbanken under § 2(2), for which only part of the treaty applies, and online casino games under § 22c.
New instruments: the OASIS exclusion register, the cross-operator deposit limit, the activity file against parallel play, and hard limits inside the game itself.
The evaluation under § 32 produced an interim report on 31 January 2024; the summary report is due by 31 December 2026 and, as at the end of September 2026, has not appeared.
The Second Amending Treaty of 26 March 2026, in force 1 July 2026, concerns network blocking under § 9, § 4b and the governance of the GGL — not the deposit limit and not the advertising rules.

In force since: 01.07.2021 enacted by each of the sixteen states
GGL fully competent: 01.01.2023 the Glücksspielkollegium decided only until 31.12.2022
Second Amending Treaty: 01.07.2026 signed 26 March 2026
Channelling rate: 77.03 % GGL activity report 2025, on 2024 data
Summary evaluation report due: 31.12.2026 not published as at 30.09.2026

What actually changed on 1 July 2021

Until 30 June 2021 there was no route to a permission in Germany for online casino games or virtual slot machines. The offer existed anyway, it came from elsewhere in Europe, and the legal position was unclear enough to keep courts busy for years. The treaty ends that state of affairs not by prohibiting but by opening a path into legality — on conditions the legislator itself describes as narrow.

Four things were new, and they still shape the market. Virtual slot machines, online poker and sports betting became capable of being permitted, each form separately. A nationwide exclusion register was created that every permitted operator has to check before allowing participation. A cross-operator deposit limit was introduced and enforced through a central file. And hard limits were imposed inside the game itself: the size of a stake, a minimum duration per game, a ban on autoplay, a ban on accumulating jackpots, a ban on parallel play.

Channelling: the calculation everything rests on

§ 1 of the treaty names the objectives: to prevent gambling addiction arising, to steer the natural urge to gamble into orderly channels, to ensure the protection of minors and players, and to avert fraud and associated crime. The second of those is channelling, and it is a bet.

The bet runs like this. If the permitted offer is strictly enough regulated, it protects; if it stays attractive enough at the same time, players do not move to the offer with no permission. Every single condition in the treaty is a position on that scale, and every debate about loosening or tightening comes back to this point.

Since mid-2026 there is an officially published figure to describe whether the bet is paying off. The GGL's activity report for 2025, published on 3 July 2026, puts the channelling rate at 77.03 per cent and the black market share at 22.97 per cent of gross gaming revenue. Two qualifications belong with that number: it rests on a study commissioned by the authority using an online panel of 2,000 respondents and data from 2024, and the report publishes no separate black market figure for 2025 of its own. The industry association DOCV regards the figures as too conservative and puts channelling closer to 50 per cent.

Enforcement in figures, reporting year 2025

531 administrative procedures, 231 of them against operators and 300 against advertisers. 2,263 websites examined, 287 prohibition procedures initiated, 152 offers and 1,551 websites discontinued. At 31 December 2025, 1,843 illegal websites were no longer reachable from Germany through prohibition orders or network blocking. On network blocking the report concedes that the instrument continued not to be deployed to the extent originally intended by the legislator.

Not a federal law: where the states kept their own rules

The treaty is not an act of the federal parliament but an agreement among the sixteen states, each of which converts it into state law by an approving statute. Its nationwide uniformity is therefore a consequence of identical wording rather than of federal legislative competence. At two important points uniformity was deliberately given up.

The first is § 2(2), on the Spielbanken. Only §§ 1 to 3, § 4(1) to (4), §§ 5, 6, 7 to 8d, § 20 and § 23 and the Tenth Section apply to them out of the treaty. Everything else is in the state casino acts: how many houses there are, who runs them, which games are offered, what entry costs, when they open, how the casino levy is calculated. What is standardised nationwide is essentially the objectives, advertising, the social concept, the information duties, the exclusion system and the exclusion register. That is why identity is checked at the door of every Spielbank — it is § 8(3), not a house rule.

The second is § 22c, on online casino games. Each state may offer them for its own territory — itself, through a legal person under public law, or through concessions, and no more concessions than the number of Spielbank concessions that could have been granted under its own casino act as it stood on 17 January 2020. These offers are expressly outside the competence of the GGL.

From that follows the boundary where most everyday confusion starts. Virtual slot machines that reproduce classic banked table games — roulette, black jack or baccarat in particular — are not permissible under a GGL permission. Offering them online requires the § 22c route, and therefore a single state. How to tell which you are looking at is set out under the German gambling licence.

The instruments the treaty created

Player protection here does not consist of appeals. It consists of files and buttons, and five of them shape every permitted online offer in Germany.

The player account, § 6a. One account per operator, and play without an account is prohibited. Identity data are verified, re-verification is provided for annually, and before verification is complete a provisional play of up to 100 euro for 72 hours is possible, with no possibility of withdrawal. An account can be closed at any time.
The deposit limit, § 6c. A cross-operator ceiling, as a rule 1,000 euro per calendar month, held in the limit file and queried before every deposit. A reduction is immediate, an increase waits seven days. Detail under the 1,000 euro deposit limit.
The activity file, § 6h. It prevents play at more than one operator at the same time. A player is set to inactive after 30 minutes without activity, and switching operator carries a five-minute wait. This cross-operator ban sits in § 6h, not in § 22a — § 22a(10) only forbids running several slot games at the same operator simultaneously.
Early detection and the panic button, § 6i. Subsection 1 requires an algorithm-based system for the early detection of behaviour at risk of addiction; subsection 3 requires a clearly recognisable and unambiguously labelled control that locks the account for 24 hours with no question asked. More under responsible gambling.
The exclusion system OASIS, §§ 8 to 8d and § 23. Nationwide, across all forms of gambling, run by the state of Hessen through the Regierungspräsidium Darmstadt rather than by the GGL — see our OASIS overview.

Inside the game itself: § 22a

Each individual game needs prior official approval. A game must last at least five seconds on average. Autoplay is prohibited, accumulating stakes or winnings into future jackpots is prohibited, and running several slot games at once at the same operator is prohibited. The maximum stake is one euro per game under § 22a(7); since 1 July 2026 the GGL has allowed staged increases under the opening clause in sentence 2 — to 3 euros from the age of 21, and to 5 euros after a 90-day qualifying period without problem-gambling indicators and with mandatory behavioural monitoring. That arrangement is limited to 31 December 2027.

The evaluation under § 32, and what the interim report says

The treaty orders its own review. § 32 requires an evaluation; an interim report by the federal states has existed since 31 January 2024, and the summary report is to be submitted by 31 December 2026. As at the end of September 2026 it has not appeared, which matters because a good deal of commentary writes as though it had.

The interim report is therefore the most recent official self-assessment, and it is more reserved than the public debate would suggest. On the deposit limit it records a strand of evidence indicating that the monthly figure of 1,000 euro in the online segment should in future be corrected downwards. On whether a credit check suffices it is equally clear: querying a score value alone is on no account sufficient. At the same time the states conclude that no reliable statement can yet be made about any foreseeable need for change.

On advertising the report names three open points: sponsorship is inadequately regulated in § 5, the ban on live advertising is largely circumvented by extensive umbrella-brand advertising, and addiction support services consider the restrictions insufficient overall.

Two corrections of common claims belong here. There is no advertising directive of the GGL — the directive of 7 December 2012 belonged to the 2012 treaty, and under the 2021 treaty its place was taken by model ancillary conditions written into individual permissions. And decisions of the minister-presidents' conference or of the Glücksspielkollegium on deposit limits in 2025 or 2026, which circulate in secondary sources, cannot be substantiated: the Kollegium decided only until 31 December 2022.

The Second Amending Treaty of 26 March 2026

The first substantive change to the treaty came into force on 1 July 2026. Its core is not player protection but enforcement.

The rules on network blocking in § 9 were adapted to the case law of the highest courts — the instrument had been largely blocked in practice, which the 2025 activity report concedes openly. § 4b and the governance of the GGL are also affected.

More important here than what changed is what did not. The Second Amending Treaty leaves § 6c and § 5 alone: the 1,000 euro deposit limit and the advertising restrictions stand exactly as they did in 2021. The movement towards loosening in 2026 did not happen in the treaty text but in an authority decision guideline on the maximum stake — that is, at the level below the statute, and with an expiry date at the end of 2027.

What the treaty means if you live here and read English

Three consequences are worth carrying away, because they differ from what a resident of most other European countries would expect.

You cannot opt out of the protective architecture by choosing a different operator. The deposit limit, the activity file and the exclusion register are cross-operator by design, and registering somewhere else changes none of them. The only thing choosing an unlicensed site changes is that you lose the protections along with the German supervisory authority.

The licensed catalogue is narrower here than elsewhere, and that is a legal fact rather than a commercial failing. No live table games under a GGL permission, one game at a time, a five-second minimum, no jackpots, no autoplay. A site offering the opposite is telling you something about its permission.

And the processes are in German. The treaty text, the GGL whitelist, the OASIS forms and the counselling helpline all operate in German, with no official English version. Where that matters we say so on the page concerned. Free and anonymous counselling is available from the Bundesinstitut für Öffentliche Gesundheit (BIÖG) on 0800 1 37 27 00, Monday to Thursday 10:00–22:00 and Friday to Sunday 10:00–18:00, with self-tests at check-dein-spiel.de.

Frequently asked

Is the Glücksspielstaatsvertrag a federal law?

No. It is an agreement between the sixteen federal states, each of which enacts it as state law through an approving statute. Its nationwide uniformity comes from identical wording, not from federal competence.

Does the treaty apply to the Spielbanken too?

Only in part. Under § 2(2) a defined list of provisions applies to them — the objectives, advertising, the social concept, the information duties, the exclusion system and the exclusion register. Concessions, opening hours, entry prices, games offered and the casino levy are matters for the state casino acts.

Why is there no live casino with live dealers at a German-licensed operator?

Because virtual slot machines that reproduce classic banked table games are not permissible under a GGL permission. Online casino games of that kind fall under § 22c and belong to the individual federal states, not to the joint authority.

Is the maximum stake still one euro?

One euro per game remains the statutory figure in § 22a(7). Since 1 July 2026 the GGL has allowed staged increases under the opening clause in sentence 2 — 3 euros from age 21, and 5 euros after a 90-day qualifying period without problem-gambling indicators and with behavioural monitoring. The arrangement is limited to the end of 2027, so the plain statement that the maximum is one euro is no longer accurate on its own.

Is the treaty being revised?

It provides for its own evaluation under § 32. The interim report dates from 31 January 2024 and the summary report is due by 31 December 2026 but had not appeared as at the end of September 2026. The Second Amending Treaty of 26 March 2026 has already made changes, though to enforcement rather than to the deposit limit or the advertising rules.

Is there a GGL advertising directive?

No, and this is a common error. The advertising directive of 7 December 2012 belonged to the 2012 treaty. Under the 2021 treaty the advertising prohibition subject to permission was abolished, and model ancillary conditions written into individual permissions took its place.

Sources

Glücksspielstaatsvertrag 2021 — § 1 (objectives), § 2(2) (application to Spielbanken), §§ 6a, 6c, 6h, 6i (player account, deposit limit, activity file, early detection and panic button), §§ 8 to 8d and § 23 (exclusion system and register), § 22a (rules inside the game), § 22c (online casino games), § 32 (evaluation) — <a href="https://www.gesetze-bayern.de/Content/Document/StVGlueStV2021" rel="nofollow noopener">gesetze-bayern.de</a>
Second Amending Treaty to the Glücksspielstaatsvertrag of 26 March 2026, in force 1 July 2026 — network blocking under § 9, § 4b, governance of the GGL.
Interim report of the federal states on the evaluation of the Glücksspielstaatsvertrag 2021, 31 January 2024 — <a href="https://www.im.nrw/system/files/media/document/file/zwischenbericht-zur-evaluation-glustv-2021.pdf" rel="nofollow noopener">im.nrw</a>
Gemeinsame Glücksspielbehörde der Länder, activity report 2025, published 3 July 2026 — channelling rate, enforcement figures, market data — <a href="https://www.gluecksspiel-behoerde.de/" rel="nofollow noopener">gluecksspiel-behoerde.de</a>
Bundesinstitut für Öffentliche Gesundheit (BIÖG), counselling helpline 0800 1 37 27 00 — <a href="https://www.check-dein-spiel.de/" rel="nofollow noopener">check-dein-spiel.de</a>