Gambling researcher calls for a significantly lower deposit limit

In Germany, there is a general deposit limit of 1,000 euros per month for online casinos across all providers. According to the renowned gambling researcher Dr. Tobias Hayer, this amount is far too high. He advocates a significant reduction in the monthly deposit limit. But how high does he think the maximum possible deposit amount should be in practice?

When we reported on the most annoying player protection regulations at GambleJoe in November 2022, we also focused on the monthly deposit limit. Section 6c of the State Treaty on Gambling states that the "cross-provider deposit limit may not exceed EUR 1,000 per month". Renowned gambling researcher Dr. Tobias Hayer from the University of Bremen has now spoken out and wants to reduce the current limit from 1,000 to 300 euros. Hayer is also calling for stronger prevention measures.

300 instead of 1,000 euros deposit limit - makes sense from an "addiction prevention perspective"?

In fact, it is questionable whether the current limit of 1,000 euros makes sense for the majority of the German population. After all, only a very small proportion of people could afford to lose 1,000 euros every month in online casinos and sports betting alone.

Gambling researcher Hayer even argues with current studies, according to which gambling expenditure of between 1% and 3% of gross income can already be classified as problematic.

Example: With a monthly gross income of 3,000 euros, it would therefore already be critical if the expenditure on gambling were to level off at a high double-digit amount per month.

Deposit limit can currently be increased to up to 30,000 euros per month

It is interesting to note that the current cross-provider deposit limit can be significantly increased in some cases under certain conditions. At the beginning of April this year, we at GambleJoe asked ourselves how easy it is to increase the limit to 10,000 euros per month. We came to the conclusion that it is often easy to increase the limit from 1,000 to 10,000 euros using the so-called Schufa-G procedure.

If special economic performance can be proven, the limit can even be increased to 30,000 euros per month for a very small percentage of members. Bremen explorer Hayer, on the other hand, is calling for a rethink and believes it would be appropriate to reduce the monthly deposit limit to a flat rate of 300 euros for all players instead.

Hayer also calls for gambling advertising to be made more restrictive and the availability of the offer to be limited. After all, online gambling in particular has a particularly high potential for addiction as it is available around the clock.

Critics claim that it does not make sense to set a blanket deposit limit for all players. After all, people have very different levels of income and can therefore sometimes afford to stake significantly more money on online gambling than others.

Conclusion

Renowned gambling researcher Dr. Tobias Hayer is calling for a significant reduction in the monthly deposit limit from 1,000 to 300 euros. The fact is that there are currently no political efforts or plans to change the current deposit limit. Players will therefore continue to be allowed to deposit "at least" 1,000 euros per month in online casinos and with betting providers.

Source of the image: https://pixabay.com/de/photos/brieftasche-vuitton-euro-silber-2302241/