Germany Unifies Gaming Regulation with the Formation of GGL

GGL Ends the Transition Period

The new body effectively ends the transition period for the German gambling market. It has the full powers to oversee the licencing of gaming bodies, craft regulation requirements, enforce penalties, make technical accreditations. The body will also mediate market disputes and handle taxation matters involving the stakeholders under its mandate. Before the body took over, the licencing policy was divided into several bodies that included Hesse for sports and horse betting, the transitional federal states of Saxony-Anhalt for online poker and virtual slot machines, Hamburg for state lotteries, Lower Saxony for commercial game brokerage and Rhineland-Palatinate for public lotteries.

The GGL will work from a combination of Saxony-Anhalt and Halle. It will also have the co-leadership of individuals from other bodies, including Benjamin Schwanke and Ronald Benter as the joint executives. The new body will hire about 20 initial staff at the beginning of 2023 to work from the Saxony-Anhalt State Administration Office.

The treaty for the formation of the body was created in July 2021 as the federal states created a regulatory framework to modulate gambling services online and oversee the implementation of gambling laws. The regime has 35 licences for sportsbooks and 15 operators that hold slots and casino licenses. The operators in this jurisdiction have stricter restrictions than those in other comparable jurisdictions, including caps on bet sizes and monthly deposits.