More German courts are addressing player refund lawsuits against online gambling operators, many associated with the bets placed before the 2021 State Treaty on Gambling, which for the first time instituted nationwide licensing rules. Since 2022, civil lawsuits in the thousands have been issued in regional courts, following several rulings that some operators were deemed to be unlawfully operating without the requisite German authorization. With additional appellate decisions pending in 2026, the results could be financially and structurally burdensome for the online gambling industry in Germany.
German courts are flooded with civil lawsuits to recover gambling losses against online casino operators who obtained online gambling licenses from outside Germany to conduct legal EU online gambling operations and accepted bets from German players, even though there was no legal basis to do so in Germany before the national gambling regulation that was implemented in July 2021. Subsequent legal challenges have been decided in favour of the plaintiffs.
The lawsuits revolve around a period in time when the EU Gambling Directive allowed online casinos to accept bets from German players, but German gambling laws at the same time banned online casino gaming, creating a paradox of legal online gambling and illegal online gambling that has resulted in a large volume of lawsuits for the courts to resolve.
The legal loophole that opened the floodgates
The first versions of the Interstate Treaty on Gambling limited the online gambling options in Germany. However, with gambling licenses from Malta (an EU state), many gambling operators threw in their European cross-border service rules arguments. German civil courts, on the other hand, have been increasingly dismissing those arguments.
As per the German Press Agency’s reports, 2025 saw thousands of civil online gambling loss claims from 2022. Of the many civil claims scattered in German courts, some reach as high as €50,000. A few law firms even claim to have received hundreds of such cases.
With years of legal gambling fog, the German online gambling market is huge for operators. For example, new no deposit bonuses in Germany, where players receive free credits is a common marketing tactic to get legal players to the platform. Lawyers in this type of case claim that these marketing strategies are the legal way to get players on a platform that was not legal in Germany.
Munich and Cologne courts and other regions have determined that contracts made without the necessary German licenses have no legal standing. In several rulings during the 2023-2025 period, higher-level regional courts si confirmed that players are entitled to recover losses from operators who were unlicensed during that period.
Why thousands of players are demanding their money back
Since early court clarifications, claims have been coming in more and more. A 2024 report published by the German Lawyers Association shows that claims for the refund of online gambling losses is one of the most rapidly developing fields of mass tort in Germany.
Since online gambling has been highly lucrative, and before the implementation of mandatory deposit limits, losses in online casino games were high. Until the introduction of the State Treaty in July 2021, which set a monthly deposit limit of €1,000 per player per month, this has been the case. According to the 2025 report of the Joint Gambling Authority of the Länder, millions of player accounts are captured by the now operational cross-provider limit monitoring system.
Court documents also show substance abuse issues. The Institute for Therapy Research’s 2023 Epidemiological Survey of Substance Abuse found that 2.3% of the German adult population has a gambling problem. Online gambling adds to the problem. There have been lawsuits where the claimant and their attorney, on the opposite side of the case, state that better regulations and clear controls would have lessened the amount of money that was lost.
Another new participant in the market is litigation funding. They pay for the lawsuits and take a cut of any money that is won, making it less financially risky for the claimants. This model has resulted in a significant increase in the number of lawsuits since 2022.
The gambling operators refute these allegations. They believe that the players made their own choices and accepted their own responsibilities. Some of these companies have included a warning in their financing documents. They state that if a case is lost, the company will have to place a significant amount of money in reserve.
How Germany’s gambling regulations created uncertainty
Germany’s gambling regulations developed over time, and sometimes, unevenly. Earlier interstate agreements contradicted the majority of online casino games, with sports betting and licensing by the state of Schleswig-Holstein between 2012 and 2013 allowing limited online casino games. The other federal states had a stricter and more conservative view than Schleswig-Holstein.
The State Treaty on Gambling for 2021 implemented a nationwide licensing system for online slots and poker in Germany for the first time, and established the Joint Gambling Authority of the Länder as a regulator, which started functioning in 2023. The Authority’s 2025 report states that it has granted several licenses to virtual slot providers and has started enforcement actions for hundreds of unlicensed sites.
This reform has created the opportunity for better laws in the future, as well as fueling debate for the past. Courts now have to decide whether operators who only had foreign EU licenses acted in breach of German law as it stood prior to July 2021. Many higher regional courts answered this question in the affirmative, which has strengthened the basis for claims for refunds.
Looking Ahead
The potential revenues are high. Germany is one of the largest gambling markets in Europe. The regulator’s 2025 report states that in 2024, gross gaming revenue from licensed online slots and poker was over €3 billion. Under the new system, there is still significant turnover in the gambling market that refund litigation intersects with.
The upcoming rulings from the higher courts may be a source of more uncertainty for both operators and claimants. The next decisions may determine whether the wave of lawsuits will expand or stabilize. For the time being, the transition from prohibition to regulation has placed a tremendous amount of focus on Germany’s courts.