Germany has an unstable gambling environment when looking at its history. While it became illegal to gamble online in 2008, one state branched out on its own to make web wagering legal. This didn’t last for long, but it means you may be able to gamble on the web up until 2018 legally. There’s also options for Germans residing in other states.
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There are over 50 land-based casinos located around the country – every major city has at least one brick and mortar casino, with the Casino Baden-Baden being one of the first ever land based casinos. Each casino is governed by its local state authorities – the legislation varies across each state but all allow land-based gambling. The German Government does have an input, but the individual state is largely responsible for regulating its casinos.
Online gambling laws in Germany
Online gambling was made illegal in Germany in 2008 when the German Interstate Treaty came into effect. Besides horse racing wagers, all forms of online gambling were deemed illegal in every state of Germany.
In 2012, the state of Schleswig-Holstein, broke off on its own and made online real money gambling legal. Internet casino websites and poker sites became licensed, and offshore online casinos started accepting German players. But after 12 months the state went back to the Treaty and made it illegal. Fortunately, for the players living within the state, the sites were licensed for six years and Shleswig-Holstein residents can still head to licensed online casinos and poker sites up until 2018.
While online gambling hasn’t been legalised in Germany – no one can operate an online casino in the country – there’s no black and white law which prevents players from gambling at offshore online casinos. Many sites accept players from Germany and offer the German language – while EUR is an available currency at all of our recommended online casinos.
Since the sites Germans can wager at are located overseas, it is important to ensure they have been verified. This can be done by doing your research – enter the casino’s name into Google and read the reviews. We’ve saved you some time though, and found some of the most reputable sites in the industry which accept German players.
Best verified EUR online casinos for Germans
German players have a number of secure offshore online casinos which they can play at. There all governed by third parties, which we have detailed below too.
Euro Palace: Set the language to Deutsch and sign up to this online casino powered by Microgaming, and governed by the Malta Gaming Authority (MGA). This powerful combination means the games on offer are fair and they’ve been reviewed by a third party to ensure the operator hasn’t manipulated them. You can play in Euros and win big on the available progressives, such as Mega Moolah. Score up to €500 over two deposits and 100 free spins as a new player too.
Royal Vegas Casino: German players can sign up and instantly be rewarded with €1200 in matched deposits at Royal Vegas Casino. There’s wagering requirements of 40x but clear them quickly on the hundreds of slots available on a downloadable or instant play platform. The MGA has also verified all available games are secure and free of manipulation.
32Red: This online casino has a list of restricted countries detailed on their site, but Germany isn’t one. You can play in Deutsch and once you’ve registered, setting your location to Germany, you you can claim €10 free no deposit required to try out all of the available Microgaming games, as well as the Evolution Gaming live dealer titles. The site is also licensed by the Government of Gibraltar – one of the best regulators in the industry, confirming the site is secure.
BGO: Licensed by both the Alderney Gaming Control Commission and the UK Gambling Commission, this online casino is incredibly popular in Europe and with good reason. It features a wide range of Playtech slots, including the popular licensed titles like Ace Ventura Pet Detective with Jim Carey’s real images used. You will also score 20 free spins, no deposit required when you open an account with BGO – plus up to $200 matched by 200% on your first deposit and 180 free spins.
German online gambling payment options
German’s are one of the few who can use PayPal to make online gambling deposits and withdrawals – PayPal has withdrawn from many countries in association to online gambling. PayPal is available at all of the aforementioned online casinos, so if you have a PayPal account already – which is incredibly likely – you can make a deposit at one of the gambling sites. If you don’t, signing up is easy – just create an account and link a personal bank account.
Neteller and Skrill are other available web wallets if you aren’t a fan of PayPal, these store funds in a virtual wallet and you can make a deposit and withdrawal swiftly at the sites above.
Visa, Visa Electron, MasterCard and Maestro are all ideal credit and debit cards for German players – you can make a deposit or withdrawal simply by entering the card details and pressing confirm.