Chairmanship of the GGL Board of Directors handed over to BaWü on 1 July

On 1 July 2024, the state of Baden-Württemberg took over the chairmanship of the Administrative Board of the Joint Gambling Authority of the Federal States (GGL). In order to ensure a balanced distribution of responsibility, each federal state takes over the leadership once for a period of one year. But is the annual change in leadership really necessary and sensible? And what tasks does the Administrative Board actually fulfil?

Just a few weeks ago, we at GambleJoe asked ourselves how much it might cost to run the German gambling authority. Just in time for 1 July this year, Reiner Moser, Head of Office at the Ministry of the Interior, Digitisation and Local Authorities of Baden-Württemberg, has now taken over the chairmanship of the GGL Administrative Board. Thuringia has thus handed over the chairmanship of the Board of Directors to Baden-Württemberg after twelve months as planned.

Annual change of leadership should bring a breath of fresh air to gambling regulation

Over the years, each federal state is given the opportunity to chair the Administrative Board for twelve months. Until 1 July, Thuringia held this chairmanship with Udo Götze. Mr Götze is the State Secretary in the Thuringian Ministry of the Interior and Local Government.

Just in time for the change in leadership, Götze took the opportunity to point out the successes achieved during his one-year term of office. Götze made the following specific comments in the official press release, which can be accessed online here:

‘Together with the federal states, the GGL has created a very good basis for the successful regulation of this rapidly developing digital market. Everyone involved can be proud of this.’

The annual change of leadership ensures a fair distribution of responsibility. This allows each federal state to provide impetus for at least twelve months and help determine the strategic direction of the gambling authority based in Halle (Saale).

The gambling authority has now been fully responsible for regulating the transnational gambling market for over 18 months. We reported on GambleJoe in January last year that the GGL has been regulating the German gambling market since 1 January 2023.

GGL: What is the Administrative Board anyway?

The Administrative Board is essentially the steering and supervisory body within the Joint Gaming Authority of the federal states. The heads of office or state secretaries of all 16 federal states are members of the Administrative Board. The members have agreed that there will always be a change of leadership on 1 July each year in alphabetical order of the sponsoring states.

The fact is that a period of just twelve months is not long enough to implement long-term strategies. It is therefore questionable whether an annual change of leadership in the chairmanship of the GGL Board of Directors actually makes sense, as the new chairperson must first familiarise themselves with their new position.

Image source: https://pixabay.com/de/photos/boss-führungskraft-geschäftsfrau-454867/