Germany’s Federal Administrative Court ruled on March 19 that gambling regulators can’t make internet service providers block illegal betting sites. The court found that Section 9 of the State Treaty on Gambling 2021 doesn’t work against access providers in “any actually conceivable use case.”
This backs an earlier decision by the Higher Administrative Court of Koblenz from April 2022.
The Joint Gambling Authority (GGL) says this won’t affect their current blocking efforts. They already gave up on targeting internet providers back in 2022 after the first court ruling anyway.
The court decision won’t change much for the GGL’s daily work. They’ve already moved on to different tactics.
Instead of going after internet providers, they now target host providers, the companies that actually store gambling websites on their servers. This approach takes more work due to “complex research and frequent changes,” but has proven “very successful.”
The GGL’s current strategy stays intact. No need to change course now.
Since those early court decisions, the GGL has pushed for updates to the gambling laws. They’ve repeatedly stressed the need to fix the IP blocking rules.
The authority has also suggested expanding the rules to cover gambling ads and they want to cut out steps that slow them down, similar to how payment blocking works.
About 930 domains are currently blocked in Germany and they’re adding roughly 60 new ones each month. Not bad for a “flawed” system.
Here’s what happens: The GGL finds the IP addresses of illegal gambling sites and identifies the host providers. Then they tell these hosts to block access from German users.
Sometimes the host just passes the message to the gambling company. Other times, they block German traffic themselves or pull the sites offline completely.
Of course, gambling sites try to dodge blocks by switching hosts. When that happens, the GGL starts over with the new host. Cat and mouse.
Preparations for updating the rules began before this court decision and are “well advanced.” German players probably won’t notice any difference. The authorities will keep blocking illegal sites, just using different methods than originally planned.
This latest update follows new regulatory actions by the GGL. In March 2025, the regulator hosted a joint session with regional coordinators to address consumer protection and harm prevention. Also, the GGL imposed €77.4m in fines across 14 illegal operators earlier this year.
The regulator has said it’s committed to amending existing legal standards. Proposals currently under consideration are extending the scope of blocking powers to cover illegal gambling advertising and simplifying procedures similar to those used for payment blocking.
