German betting outage sparks concern over black market gambling

A 10-hour disruption in Germany’s regulated sports betting market has raised alarm among licensed operators and the industry as a whole, with the German Sports Betting Association (DSWV) warning that the failure may have pushed bettors toward unlicensed alternatives.

Last Saturday (March 15), bettors across Germany were unable to make deposits or register new accounts with licensed sports betting providers.

The issue stemmed from a failure in the LUGAS system, a regulatory tool managed by the Gemeinsamen Glücksspielbehörde der Länder (GGL).

LUGAS is designed to track betting activity and enforce deposit limits and compliance rules for licensed operators.

However, an unexpected shutdown brought the entire legal betting market to a standstill for 10 hours, leaving customers without access to their accounts.

DSWV President Mathias Dahms criticized the situation, suggesting that the outage may have benefited illegal betting operators who remained alive and kicking while licensed platforms were offline.

“If legal sports betting offers cannot be used by customers from Germany on a Bundesliga Saturday, the illegal betting providers, who are very happy to accept new customers and deposits, will benefit first and foremost,” Dahms said.

He emphasized that these aforementioned unregulated platforms provide no player protection while also costing the German government tax revenue.

The DSWV has called for a thorough review of why the LUGAS system failure occurred and how similar incidents can be avoided in the future.

The association also urged the GGL to implement a 24/7 IT support service through Dataport, the regulatory authority’s IT partner. According to the DSWV, this is a request that has been repeatedly made over the years but remains unaddressed.

The GGL acknowledged the outage, confirming that licensed providers were unable to accept new deposits or sign up customers during the disruption.

However, what they did uncover is that existing customers with preloaded balances could still place bets during the downtime.

GGL stated that it contacted Dataport immediately after being alerted to the failure, and the system was restored later the same day.

While the regulator is investigating the root cause, it has not yet responded to DSWV’s call for around-the-clock IT support.

The outage comes just days after GGL officials spoke at the DAW Berlin Congress, urging politicians to introduce stricter measures against black-market gambling.

With licensed operators struggling with regulatory red tape and unauthorized platforms continuing to thrive, the incident has intensified discussions about the stability and competitiveness of Germany’s regulated sports betting market.

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