Comparison

Online casinos with a German licence: how the market is regulated

Every operator in this overview holds a licence from the Gemeinsame Glücksspielbehörde der Länder, the joint gambling authority of the German states, usually shortened to GGL. What separates them is not the legal position — that is the same for all of them — but payout practice, game selection and the quality of the protective tools.

By the Casinohafen deskUpdated: 28 September 2026Checked: September 2026

Operators tested: 12
Test groups: 6
Single criteria: 42
Stake per spin: 1.00 € max.

What is identical everywhere in Germany

Deposit limit, stake limit, minimum spin duration, OASIS connection and advertising bans apply to every licence holder alike. An operator advertising that it gets around them either has no German licence or is in breach of its own.

Germany caps deposits at 1,000 euro per calendar month across every licensed operator combined. The cap is enforced through the LUGAS limit register and applies to the person, not to the individual account.

Where the houses actually differ

Processing time for withdrawals, how comprehensible the terms are, the breadth of the approved game range, whether support can be reached in German. Those are exactly the points that carry the most weight in our catalogue.

The last of them deserves a warning for readers of this English section: German law obliges an operator to serve customers in German, and it does not oblige anyone to answer in English. Several licence holders do, some only at certain hours, and a few not at all. Where that is the case, the review says so.

What we measure operators against

We are not publishing an operator overview for this section at present. What goes into the test, and with what weight, is set out in full in the test catalogue.

Test catalogue and weighting — 42 single criteria in six groups
Test group	Weight	Criteria
Licence and supervision	25 %	9
Payouts and processing	20 %	7
Player protection and OASIS	20 %	8
Game range	15 %	6
Costs and limits	12 %	6
Service and transparency	8 %	6

Test criteria and weighting

Why there is no operator table on this page at present

A comparison table appears here only if it can be assembled entirely from licence holders. A mixed list would blur the very distinction that matters in law, so the open test catalogue stands in its place. Individual verdicts are in the reviews; the weighting behind them is in the test criteria.

Who supervises the market

Licences are issued and supervised by the GGL, based in Halle an der Saale. It has been fully responsible since 1 January 2023; the legal basis, the Glücksspielstaatsvertrag or State Treaty on Gambling, has been in force since 1 July 2021. An operator not listed by the GGL may not offer online gambling in Germany, whatever foreign licence is named in its footer — a Malta or Curaçao reference is not a German permission and confers none of the protections described on these pages.

Frequently asked

Why are there no operators without a German licence here?

Because a comparison table that mixes licence holders with operators that hold no licence blurs the very difference that matters in law.

I live in Germany but hold a foreign passport. Can I play at a licensed operator?

The licence attaches to the operator and to play from German territory, not to nationality. What every operator does require is successful identity verification and a check against the OASIS exclusion register.

How do I confirm that an operator really is licensed?

Through the register kept by the Gemeinsame Glücksspielbehörde der Länder. A statement in a website footer is not a substitute for looking it up there.

Why is the deposit limit the same at every operator?

Because it attaches to the person and is added up across operators through the LUGAS register. Opening a second account elsewhere does not raise the monthly total.

Sources

<a href="https://www.gluecksspiel-behoerde.de/de/fuer-spielende/informationen-fuer-spielende-faqs/faq-was-sind-legale-online-casinos-in-deutschland">GGL: which online casinos are legal in Germany</a> (German)
<a href="https://www.gluecksspiel-behoerde.de/de/fuer-spielende/informationen-fuer-spielende-faqs/faq-einzahlungslimit-und-hoechsteinsatz">GGL: FAQ on the deposit limit and maximum stake</a> (German)
Glücksspielstaatsvertrag 2021 (German State Treaty on Gambling), in force since 1 July 2021.
Gemeinsame Glücksspielbehörde der Länder (GGL), Halle (Saale), fully responsible since 1 January 2023.