How to Spot an Illegal Online Casino: German Regulator Reveals Red Flags

Posted on: January 23, 2026, 01:46h. 

Last updated on: January 23, 2026, 02:21h.

Philip Conneller @casinoorgphilc Read More
Expertise: Gaming Business, Regulation, Tribal Gaming.
  • GGL publishes holiday guide to help players spot illegal sites
  • Offshore casinos look legit, using SEO, affiliates, and cloaking
  • Licensed sites use LUGAS caps, OASIS self-exclusion, panic button

What does an offshore, unlicensed gambling website look like? That’s a question Germany’s gambling regulator hopes to answer with a new publication designed to help players avoid the black market.

GGL, illegal online gambling, offshore casinos, OASIS, LUGAS
Germany’s gambling regulator says illegal offshore casinos often appear polished and legitimate at first glance. Common red flags include “no-limits” marketing, foreign domains, and missing player-protection tools. (Image: Shutterstock)

The regulator, the Gemeinsame Glücksspielbehörde der Länder – mercifully abbreviated to GGL – enforces the country’s gambling law, the Glücksspielneuregulierungstaatsvertrag (GlüStV 2021). Those 14 vowels and 24 consonants reflect how seriously Germany takes its gambling law. It’s also game over in Scrabble.

‘Rarely Look Shady’

The new guidance, titled, “Illegal Gambling on the Internet – Recognize, Avoid, Report,” was released during the Christmas holidays, a time when people tend to gamble more and are therefore more at risk of accessing unlicensed operators, often inadvertently.

Offshore gambling sites rarely look “shady” at first glance, warns the GGL. Instead, they are often slick, professionally designed platforms aimed squarely at German-speaking players, but without any proof of German licensing.

Illegal gambling providers and their affiliates deliberately optimize content to appear prominently in search engine results, often targeting generic terms such as “online casino” or “casino without limits.”

The GGL also warns that some illegal operators use so-called “cloaking” techniques, serving different versions of a website depending on who is viewing it. Search engines and regulators may be shown a neutral or compliant-looking page, while real users are redirected to gambling content, making detection and enforcement more difficult.

Common red flags include non-.de domains, unusually generous bonuses, and “no-limits” marketing. And they lack the mandatory player-protection tools, such as the deposit caps or the OASIS self-exclusion system.

These are unique safeguards that were ushered in by GlüStV 2021, which completely rewrote the rulebook on online gambling in Germany.

Strongarm Tactics

Under the rules, players cannot deposit more than €1,000 per month across all licensed operators. That cap is enforced through LUGAS, technology that aggregates deposits in real time, preventing players from sidestepping limits by moving between sites.

Licensed operators must also be connected to OASIS, Germany’s national self-exclusion database, and provide a permanently accessible 24-hour “panic button” that allows players to exclude themselves immediately.

Germany’s gambling laws are some of the strictest in Europe, but there are concerns that lower stakes offerings and restrictions on online advertising may be luring players to offshore operators, who have no such constraints.

The new guidance is all part of its plan to improve “channelization,” which refers to a licensed jurisdiction’s ability to draw players to the regulated market.