exclusive
With the providers of online gambling, the federal states have concluded a previously secret agreement that undermines the legal requirements for player protection. This is shown by current research. Experts are horrified.
1.3 million people in Germany are considered addicted to play; Another 3.2 million people are at risk. Online gambling games – which also include sports betting – are a growing danger that providers benefit from: the sales of the platforms have doubled across Europe since 2018. An expert commission of the renowned medical magazine “The Lancet” recently warned of a “rapidly growing problem for public health”.
In Germany, the federal states are responsible for regulating gambling offers, which in turn have given the supervision and control of the “Common Gaming Authority of the States” (GGL). The countries have regulated the legal foundations for this in the State Treaty of Gaming, the aim of which is to “prevent the emergence of gambling addiction and competition and to create the prerequisites for effective fight against addiction”.
Deposit lock prescribed of 1,000 euros
A central legal requirement is that customers can generally pay a maximum of 1,000 euros a month with online casinos and betting providers across providers. Experts like the Bremen gambling researcher Tobias Hayer consider this limit to be “already too high”. Nevertheless, the end of the game can pay a lot more. In this case, however, the providers who have to check the “economic performance” of their customers should ensure that nobody gambles into ruin. The Gambling State Treaty guideline, for example, calls for “income tax notices or other proof of income and bank statements.”
Research by Investigate Europe, monitor And online show that this important requirement for player protection was practically overridden by the state interior ministers in November 2022. This was done by a previously secret agreement in a judicial comparison with sports betting providers who had sued for players’ protection against specifications.
Protection function can be avoided
The comparison applies today in Germany and allows providers to accept a so-called Schufa-G query as proof of assets, although this examination, especially for the gaming industry, neither the income nor the actual assets of the players is recorded. In an experiment, the research team was able to prove that even a student with a monthly income of around 1,000 euros was able to raise his deposit limit to 10,000 euros per month.
Addiction -endangered people would be driven even faster into economic ruin, warns the search expert Tobias Hayer from the University of Bremen: “It can be assumed that people in particular will try to make use of this lift increase. Apparently the economic interests of gaming providers have prevailed again in the present comparison.”
The Federal Government’s addiction and drug representative, Burkhard Blienert, was “really angry” on request that the strict rules for gambling issued by the federal states will be released backwards “: The providers would get a free ticket to be able to make even more profit at the expense of health and at the end of the general public.”
“A lot suggests that this is illegal”
The constitutional law stimulates a constitutional examination of the process: “A lot suggests that this is illegal,” he said.
On request, almost all state governments refer to the responsibility of the common gaming authority of the federal states, which is currently examining whether the practice of the Schufa-G-AB question does justice to the requirements of player protection. The judicial comparison with the providers was necessary to “clarify controversial legal questions”.
The federal states did not answer the question of whether and why the legally required player protection was undermined, with the exception of the Bremen Senator Ulrich Mäurer (SPD): According to his authority, “the admission of Schufa-G contradicts the goals of the Gaming State Treaty to prevent the emergence of gambling addiction”. This is followed by the fact that the use of the Schufa-G query is “immediately prohibited from gambling providers”.
You can see more about this and other topics today at 9:45 p.m. at Monitor in the first or in the ARD media library.