The DOCV, Germany’s online casino trade body, has joined forces with the sports betting trade body DSWV to increase attention around “alarming developments in Germany’s online gambling market”.
The body emphasised that more needs to be done to increase protections around consumers being targeted by the black market. It comes off the back of a study undertaken by economist Günther Schnabl of the University of Leipzig, evaluating the effectiveness of laws and protections of Germany’s Interstate Market (GlüNeuRStv).
It detailed that “efforts of the federal states to steer players towards licensed offers, around half of German online gambling continues to take place in the illegal market”.
“The youth and player protection measures of legal providers, such as limits, player bans and offers of help, are therefore often ineffective,” the DOCV’s statement continued.
The University of Leipzig’s study used data from Nielsen Media, Germany’s market research panel, recording online activities of approximately 25,000 consumers in Germany, recording visits and engagements with over 700 gambling domains.
Monitoring developments, as of March 2023, only about half (50.7%) of German gamblers engaged with licensed providers. The report detailed a significant shift towards unlicensed EU (28.9%) and offshore (19.9%) operators observed since January 2019.
The report concluded: “The key goal of the federal states with the new State Treaty on Gambling, which came into force in July 2021, was to channel players into the legal market, where they play in a protected, state-monitored area.”
At the heart of recommendations are “accelerating the GGL’s licensing processes, increasing the legal market’s competitiveness, and strictly enforcing the advertising ban on illegal providers while maintaining advertising for licensed operators”.
It further advises enhancing cooperation between the gambling industry and federal gambling authority GGL with the participation of wider stakeholders.
