Germany Gambling License

Who regulates gambling in Germany?

The Gemeinsame Glücksspielbehörde der Länder (GGL), in English the Joint Gambling Authority of the Federal States, regulates online gambling in Germany. The 16 Länder created the GGL on 1 July 2021, and the GGL has held full powers under the Glücksspielstaatsvertrag 2021 since 1 January 2023. The GGL works from Hansering 15, 06108 Halle (Saale), in Saxony-Anhalt.

The GGL is a public-law institution funded by all 16 Länder. Under the GlüStV 2021 the GGL licenses online poker, virtual slot machines, online horse-race betting, sports betting, national social lotteries, class lotteries and multi-state commercial brokering. The GGL took on enforcement against unlicensed gambling in July 2022, six months before it received full licensing powers.

One GGL license takes effect in every Land. Operators do not apply state by state.

Three areas sit outside the GGL. Land-based venues stay with the individual Länder. Online casino games, live dealer tables included, sit with the Länder. The OASIS self-exclusion database belongs permanently to Regierungspräsidium Darmstadt, not to the GGL, although every licensee must connect to OASIS.

What are the advantages of a German gambling license?

A German gambling license gives an operator legal access to Europe's largest gambling market under one regulator instead of 16. The first license runs five years, and later grants run seven. German rules are strict, and that strictness helps licensed operators with banks, payment providers and partners who screen operators before signing.

What a German license delivers:

• Legal access to the German market, covering all 16 Länder from a single grant.

• One regulator, one application, one set of conditions. The GGL replaced the old state-by-state approach in January 2023.

• A five-year first term, then seven years on later grants.

• A credential that mainstream German payment rails accept. Cards, instant bank transfer, PayPal and e-wallets all work for licensed operators.

• Protection from the loss-clawback claims that follow unlicensed play in Germany, where the Bundesgerichtshof hears lead case I ZR 216/25 on 17 September 2026.

One limit belongs here as well: a German license covers Germany. A German license is not an EU passport and does not authorise other member states.

What does a German gambling license cover?

The GGL licenses four online verticals: sports betting, virtual slot machines, online poker and horse-race betting. The GGL does not license online casino table games. Roulette, blackjack and live dealer products fall to the individual Länder, and most Länder have not opened the vertical to private operators. Product scope is the first thing to check.

Many licensing guides state that online casinos are legal and licensed in Germany. That shortcut is wrong in a way that costs money. An operator selling live roulette or blackjack has no national German license to buy. The only routes are the Land concessions in Schleswig-Holstein and Bavaria, and each reaches players in that Land only.

Product rules for virtual slots, all set by the GlüStV 2021:

• Stake per spin: €1 by statute.

• Higher tiers since 1 July 2026: up to €3 for players aged 21 and over, and up to €5 for players aged 21 and over who have completed at least 90 days of non-problematic play under closer monitoring. These tiers rest on a GGL decision of 30 June 2026, require GGL permission and an operator-side build, and the guidance runs only to 31 December 2027.

• Minimum game duration: five seconds on average.

• Autoplay: prohibited.

• Parallel play: prohibited, including two rounds of the same game.

Who is the Germany license suitable for?

A gambling license in Germany suits a B2C operator that already earns German revenue and wants to legalise that revenue, and whose balance sheet can absorb a tax and a license fee that both sit on stakes rather than on revenue. The operator also needs a bank willing to issue an unlimited €5,000,000 guarantee.

A German license fits an operator that:

• already has German players and wants a place on the GGL whitelist;

• runs sports betting, poker or virtual slots rather than live casino;

• banks with an EU or EEA institution prepared to issue an unlimited self-guaranteeing guarantee of €5,000,000; and

• can carry per-game approval for a slot portfolio as a standing workstream rather than a one-off project.

A German license is a poor fit for a small or mid-sized new entrant, and for any slots model that depends on a high return to player. At 96% RTP the German stakes tax costs more than the whole gross gaming revenue. The arithmetic sits in the tax section below.

How much does a German gambling license cost?

A German gambling license has no flat fee. Under the GlüStV 2021 the GGL charges a sliding scale on approved or expected stakes, so a large book pays far more than a small one. On top sit a €5,000,000 bank guarantee, which is a credit facility rather than cash, and a six-figure technical build.

Key figures:

• License fee base: a percentage of stakes, from 0.2% down to 0.06% across four brackets.

• Security: €5,000,000, raisable to €50,000,000.

• Gambling tax: 5.3% of stakes.

• Corporate tax: about 30% in total.

Three figures circulate in licensing guides. €185,000 is not the German license fee: it is the base of the top bracket, and it applies only once stakes pass €130m. A figure of €20,000 circulates with no traceable official source.

About €16,500 is quoted as the application fee by the German specialist site wettanbieter-lizenz, but the official service descriptions for these permits state only that costs vary with the individual case, and the GlüStV 2021 sets a scale on stakes, so treat €16,500 as an indication and not as a published fee.

Because the scale runs on stakes rather than revenue, a high-RTP slots book generates enormous stake volume, and the fee can reach seven figures.

The €5,000,000 security is not €5,000,000 of cash locked away. The statute asks for a bank guarantee, so the real annual cost is the issuing bank's fee plus whatever collateral the operator's credit standing requires.

Two points cut the other way. The statute permits exactly one form, with no cash deposit, surety bond or letter of credit alternative, so the operator needs a bank willing to issue an unlimited self-guaranteeing guarantee. And the GGL can raise the figure to €50,000,000, benchmarked to about one month of expected turnover.

What taxes apply to a German gambling license?

German gambling tax is 5.3% of stakes, not of gross gaming revenue, under the Rennwett- und Lotteriegesetz. That single design choice decides whether a German operation works. Corporate tax adds about 30% in total: corporation tax of 15% plus the 5.5% solidarity surcharge gives 15.825%, and trade tax adds 3.5% multiplied by the municipal Hebesatz, roughly 14% to 17% in large cities. Gambling under the RennwLottG is exempt from VAT, which also blocks recovery of input VAT.

The tax base is self-referential, so the effective charge is about 5.033% of the gross stake. The number that decides a German model is what the tax costs against gross gaming revenue, and it works out at roughly 5.3% divided by one minus RTP:

• At 90% RTP, the tax costs about 50% of gross gaming revenue.

• At 95% RTP, about 106%.

• At 96% RTP, the tax costs more than the entire gross gaming revenue.

German operators therefore cut RTP, and the German operators' association DOCV wants the base moved from stakes to revenue. DOCV puts the effective rate above 25%. Any published effective rate depends on the RTP behind it, so each operator has to model its own and never treat 5.3% as a rate on revenue.

Structuring does not help. The tax attaches to German activity wherever the licensee sits, and because the tax lands on stakes, transfer pricing does almost nothing. Product design drives the bill, not the holding structure.

How long does it take to get a German gambling license?

The GGL publishes a minimum processing time of at least three months. MGL plans German applications on a 9 to 18 month range. One more factor belongs in the plan: a German application can stall. In 2025 the GGL decided eight base licenses against 140 modification applications.

Kindred withdrew Unibet from the German market and stated that instead of the decision it expected, it was told no decision had been reached and its application would stay pending for an unknown period.

Multi-vertical structures take longer, and an incomplete file restarts the phase in progress.

How long is a German gambling license valid?

A German gambling license runs five years on first grant. Any grant that is not the applicant’s first runs seven years under the GlüStV 2021. The GGL can set a shorter term in justified cases. Renewal is not automatic: the licensee re-evidences financial standing and technical certifications, shows its player-protection record, and keeps the €5,000,000 guarantee in place throughout.

How does Germany compare with other gaming licenses?

Germany is the largest regulated gambling market in Europe and the most demanding to enter. A German licensee pays 5.3% of stakes and posts a €5,000,000 guarantee. Malta charges €45,000 and 5% of GGR. Curaçao and Anjouan charge no gaming tax, and Anjouan issues in about three months.

Germany makes sense when the German market is the target market. Operators who need reach and speed start with Anjouan or Curaçao and treat Germany as a later step. Our gambling license overview compares every jurisdiction we handle.

What are the disadvantages of a German gambling license?

German gambling tax sits on stakes, so at a competitive RTP the tax can cost more than an operator's gross gaming revenue. Security is €5,000,000 in one permitted form only. Every virtual slot game needs separate approval. Advertising is banned 15 hours a day. And the licensed market is shrinking.

The full list:

• Tax on stakes. At 96% RTP the 5.3% stakes tax exceeds gross gaming revenue. A model built on 5.3% as a revenue rate is not optimistic, it is arithmetically impossible.

• A license fee that scales with stakes rather than revenue.

• A €5,000,000 bank guarantee with no cash or surety alternative, raisable to €50,000,000 at the GGL's discretion.

• A statutory €1 stake per spin. The €3 and €5 tiers introduced on 1 July 2026 are opt-in, need GGL permission, and the current guidance ends on 31 December 2027.

• No national license for online casino table games, no progressive jackpots, no autoplay and no parallel play. Several product lines are closed.

• Per-game approval for every virtual slot, applied for by the operator and not by the studio that built the game.

• No broadcast or internet advertising for slots, poker or casino between 06:00 and 21:00.

• An application that can stall. The GGL decided eight base licenses in 2025.

• A shrinking licensed market. Whitelist licence holders fell from 139 at the end of 2024 to 135 at the end of 2025, and licensed websites in the high-risk verticals fell from 168 to 152.

Why choose MGL for a German gambling license?

MGL has obtained more than 300 gaming licenses and advised over 500 operators. On German files MGL works in the four places where applications usually fail: the EU or EEA structure, the German-language dossier, the €5,000,000 bank guarantee, and the per-game approval queue for virtual slots.

What MGL does on a German file:

• Structures the license holder in the EU or EEA and appoints the German authorised representative for service.

• Builds the German-language dossier, including the Sicherheitskonzept, Sozialkonzept and Wirtschaftlichkeitskonzept, with certified translations of foreign documents.

• Sources the €5,000,000 unlimited bank guarantee. Only one form is permitted, and a young company rarely obtains it from its own bank. MGL works with EU and EEA institutions that issue it.

• Scopes the LUGAS, OASIS and safe-server build with the operator's technical team before filing, so the audit does not send the file back a stage.

• Runs the per-game approval workstream for the slot portfolio, and confirms before filing whether the games meet the German product rules.

MGL quotes one fixed fee for the whole German file before the work starts, so the operator knows the project cost up front. Getting started takes one form and 30 minutes, and MGL says whether Germany fits the product before the operator spends anything on it.