The application of cross-operator checks and protections mandated by Germany’s Fourth Interstate Treaty on Gambling (GlüNeuRStV) has come under scrutiny.
The liabilities of the GlüNeuRStV regime were detailed by the journal Investigate Europe, which on 6 Marchpublished an article titled: “Legal, illegal, doesn’t it matter?”.
The article exposes that “in Germany, state governments have circumvented the rules, allowing gambling companies free rein in their illegal business while the criminals remain unmolested.”
An investigative team has accused German federal states of allowing online operators to bypass strict financial cross-operator checks to allow customers to gamble above the deposit threshold of €1,000 ($1090,7).
The laws of the GlüNeuRStV regime, imposed since 1 July 2021, obligate licensed operators to apply a cross-operator €1,000 deposit limit on customer accounts.
GlüNeuRStV rules allow operators to increase the deposit threshold to a higher limit of €10,000 ($10 907), depending on a cross-reference to a customer’s income, such as tax records or ‘other direct sources’.
Bundesländer “Secret Agreement” on Soft Checks
The application of the €1,000 deposit limit on GlüNeuRStV licences is overseen by LUGAS, the Gambling Evaluation System of German gambling, managed by Glücksspielbehörde (GGL), the Federal Authority of German Gambling.
Grabbing national headlines, Investigate Europe accused German Bundesländer (federal states) of being involved in a “secret agreement” with online operators to bypass the financial check on customer accounts.
The discrepancy relates to the Bundesländer allowing online operators to use the “Schufa-G query” to credit check customer accounts and allow them to deposit above the €1,000 per month cross-operator threshold.
The journal cites that via a court settlement reached in November 2022, the Bundesländer allowed the GGL to authorise Schufa-G credit checks for German customers seeking to expand their deposit limits to €10,000.
The backlash has seen Schufa-G branded a “bogus credit check” by critics such as Bremen Senator Ulrich Mäurer, who described it as a cross-reference designed to allow online gambling operators to bypass checks without rigorous due diligence on a customer’s income.
“The approval of Schufa-G contradicts the objectives of the State Treaty on Gambling and must be prohibited immediately,” Senator Mäurer stated.
The use of Schufa-G queries is due to be probed by Düsseldorf law firm HSF, representing the wife of a customer who lost €30,000 ($32 721) “secretly gambling” at Tipico, where the individual was cross-referenced using the disputed method.
Furthermore, the dispute points to a ruling by the Regional Court of Lüneburg which deemed that “Schufa-G queries do not meet the legal requirements to prove economic conditions.”
The GGL is accused of allowing a financial liability favouring gambling operators to process vulnerable customers at risk of problem gambling.
An intervention in the GlüNeuRStV regime is needed, as “The supervisory officials are bound by the settlement and must recognise the Schufa queries as legal. As a result, according to the GGL, there are now around 300,000 players with a deposit limit of more than €1,000 a month.
“This number is growing. The providers are also allowed to sell live bets, which are expressly prohibited by law, until a court has decided on their objection. But that has not happened even two and a half years after the settlement was concluded.”
An instant rebuttal was provided by Deutscher Sportwettenverband (DSWV), the Sports Betting Association of Germany, which stated that the journal had made an “unfounded scandalisation” of regulatory circumstances.
The trade body denied any “secret agreement” to allow Schufa-G checks, stating that “Federal States have also published the contents of the settlement in their interim report on the evaluation of the Interstate Gambling Treaty”– information that has been made available via the website of the Conference of Interior Ministers.
DSWV: Schufa-G has transparency unlike GlüNeuRStV rules
DSWV maintains that the use of Schufa-G credit checks is an appropriate tool for evaluating a customer’s financial standing. However, Schufa-G checks and other financial assessments cannot overlook persisting failures in the LUGAS system undermining the protection of German consumers.
The GlüNeuRStV regime still requires German authorities to clarify the parameters for economic evaluations of customers – “the question of how exactly a player can prove his financial standing is complex and not defined in gambling law.”
The Schufa-G query is described as a “useful indicator of whether players are living in orderly financial circumstances and prevents over-indebted persons from gambling.” According to the DSWV, “the supervisory authority GGL has published a detailed FAQ.”
DSWV cites that “Schufa data thus actively contributes to player protection” but admits that “this does not mean that the review process could not be improved.” In August 2024, DSWV submitted proposals for improvement to the federal states.
Improvements to the LUGAS system are considered part of many corrections sought by the DSWV to the GlüNeuRStV regime. Of note, the DSWV maintains that German gambling continues to be undermined by severe discrepancies in the reporting of data.
Media should focus on Black Market encroachment
German media continues to report of the German Gambling Atlas figure that 1.3 million adults suffer from gambling disorders – a figure that has been disproven by the DSWV and its team of academic experts led by economist Günther Schnabl of the University of Leipzig.
DSWV urges German media to take note of the key observation on gambling prevalence as documented by the Atlas. As of 2021, 30% of the population in Germany participated in gambling, reflecting a decline from 55% reported in 2007.
This figure highlights German gambling’s growing exposure to the black market, which the DSWV has warned the Bundesland and Bundestag about. As of 2023, over 50% of German gamblers engaged with unlicensed providers — a glaring liability that requires urgent intervention.
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