Is gambling legal in Germany?

Gambling legal concept

Is Your Jurisdiction Regulated?

The first question to ask yourself when you are about to gamble at an online casino is whether your gambling market is regulated. There are basically 3 kinds of markets, the regulated, the unregulated and the grey markets. In a nutshell, they mean that a specific country or state can have clear laws about gambling or not – at times however the laws are unclear or they are too old and apply to ‘real’ casinos and the interpretation of how to apply them to the online environment is unclear.

If you live in a regulated market like Germany things tend to be simpler, and websites licensed in the European Union must obey the law and comply with the rules of the license issuer. If you come across a website licensed in Malta for example you don’t have to worry because that country is a hotspot of offices of the gambling industry and many serious operators like Eaglebet are licensed there.

If, however you live at a grey area things are a bit more complicated and you must research local laws to understand what is going on.

The concept of black market could mean two things: either an operator is active without a license at a regulated area or the company is taking bets at a country where gambling is totally unlawful.

How to Bet Safely in Germany

Licenses however do not mean the operator can’t be problematic. At times some companies comply with the license issuer to obtain the license then engage in unlawful activities until vanishing completely from the market.

To read casino reviews at trustable websites surely is a good way of starting your research but bettors must be aware that some shady websites just try to promote brands that pay for the ranking spaces, which means you must check if a specific company is good not just in the online environment but in terms of reputation and of course, making a test yourself!

Testing a Casino

If you are confident that a licensed casino is interesting, make a deposit and multiply your gaming budget by making use of Welcome bonuses and test the slots and the card games of that casino in practice.

After you have tested the site a little try to request a withdrawal: the casino can ask for more information, this process is called KYC, but the operator may call it ‘completing your registration for withdrawal purposes’.

After you do that you are ready to make bigger withdrawals when your desired profits come – beware however that substantial withdrawals may result in more confirmations of your details because of anti-money laundering laws and the compliance of the casinos to obey them in order to retain their licenses.

Do You Bet on Sports?

Some operators have multiple sections at their websites and take bets related to sports events ‘next’ to their casino operations: in that case, make sure you check your e-mail box because casino bettors may receive special offers to test the services of the bookmaker section of the website.