GGL says thank you for 1,500 anonymous tips

A few days ago, the Gambling Authority thanked the public for over 1,500 tips from the public. These have been received by the authority since 1 January 2023. Around half of the cases involved illegal online gambling, which was reported by the public. The gambling authority's anonymous tip-off portal continues to be criticised.

Back in summer 2022, we at GambleJoe reported on the anonymous tip-off portal introduced by the Joint Gambling Authority of the Federal States (GGL). The authority, which is based in Halle (Saale), has now thanked the public for reporting irregularities at legal providers and illegal gambling activities. Those responsible at the authorities emphasise that every tip-off received will be followed up if the requirements are met. In total, the population has submitted over 1,500 reports in this way since 1 January 2023. That is an average of just under 2.4 reports per day.

What kind of information did the public send to the authorities?

Around every second report was a suspicion of illegal online gambling. The remaining reports concerned possible irregularities at providers that already have a German licence. Most of the reports generally related to virtual slot machines, online sports betting and commercial gaming brokerage.

Thanks to the support of the public, the GGL was able to scrutinise a total of 1,860 online platforms last year. These were operated by a total of 438 gambling providers. As a result, the gambling authority initiated 133 prohibition proceedings during this period.

How does the gambling authority deal with reports received?

GGL emphasises that every report will be investigated. However, in order for this to be possible, it is essential that players can describe the problems or suspicions in detail and, if possible, substantiate them with evidence. In many cases, the information from the public related, among other things, to violations in the payout process, unauthorised advertising or non-compliance with deposit limits.

Unfortunately, the past has shown that in many cases the reporting parties were unable to provide the necessary evidence, meaning that the authorities were ultimately unable to follow up on many of the reports. In order to increase the usefulness of the reports, the GGL has now published a ‘Guide for entering reports into the whistleblower system’. Interested users can view the guidelines on the official website of the gambling authority and report a tip-off anonymously.

Anonymous whistleblowing portal continues to be criticised

The announcement of the anonymous whistleblowing portal was already met with vociferous criticism from many gambling fans. Some users cannot understand why players should ‘snitch’ on providers and see this more as a task for the gambling authorities.

Overall, many associations and licenced online casinos complain that the strict player protection measures in combination with strict official monitoring are causing more and more players to turn their backs on the legal gambling market. As a result, they are then active in illegal online casinos without a German licence, which is not conducive to either player protection or tax revenues.

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