Glücksspiel: Erlaubnis zur Veranstaltung von Online-Poker beantragen

If you would like to organize online poker, you can apply for a permit under certain conditions. The permit can be applied for online or in writing.

You can apply for a permit to organize online poker. You may only organize online poker games in Germany with a valid permit. The licensing procedure includes a main application for a general license.

Applicants can be the organizing persons themselves or authorized representatives (internal employees of a company or external parties, for example lawyers).

• Presentation of the company structure
• Certificate of good conduct
• Extract from the central trade register
• Business registration (copy)
• Clearance certificate
• Certificate from the tax office responsible for online poker tax
• Printout from the joint enforcement portal of the federal states
• Proof of expertise
• Legitimate origin of the required funds
• Certificate from an independent auditor
• Presentation of the profitability taking into account the tax obligations (profitability concept)
• Payment processing concept
• IT security concept
• Money laundering concept
• Social concept
• Sales concept
• Advertising concept
• Description of what information relevant to the game is made available to players on the website and how this is presented
• Information on the risks of addiction associated with the online poker games offered, the ban on underage participation and the counseling and therapy options available
• Information on the expected amount of stakes in the Federal Republic of Germany over the next 5 years
• Presentation of measures to prevent manipulation
• Printout of the General Terms and Conditions (GTC) for online poker on the Internet
• Auditor's declaration on performance capability
• Declaration by tax advisor, legal advisor, certified public accountant or certified public accountant on performance capacity

You must be at least 18 years old.

You must be based in a member state of the European Union or a state party to the Agreement on the European Economic Area in order to apply for a license to operate virtual slot machines in Germany.

In addition, you must fulfill the requirements of the State Treaty on Gambling of 2021:

• Extended reliability (no unauthorized gambling, transparent ownership and shareholding structure)
• Efficiency (sufficient own funds, profitability, insurance cover)
• Transparency and security of gambling

Costs may be incurred.

You can apply for permission to organize online poker both online and in writing.

If you wish to apply for permission to conduct online poker in writing:

• In the first step, process the "main application".
• In the main application, provide information on the organizer, all authorized representatives and other responsible persons. You must also provide information on the organizer's reliability and information on distribution and processing.
• You must have fully processed your application before submitting it. It is permissible for required documents to be submitted subsequently if they were not yet available when the application was submitted. However, the competent authority can only finalize applications once all documents have been submitted.
• As part of the application processing by the competent authority, you must provide a security deposit of at least EUR 5 million up to a maximum of EUR 50 million.
• After you have submitted the main application, you must submit a subsequent application for the individual virtual machine games. Provide information on the technical access to the virtual machine games and all details (name, type, URL, category and game rules). You can submit the subsequent application immediately after the main application, but no later than two weeks after the main application has been granted.
• Once the Joint Gaming Authority of the federal states (Gemeinsame Glücksspielbehörde der Länder - GGL) has completed its review and approval, you will receive a notice of approval by post.

If you wish to apply online:

• Create a company/citizen account online.
• In this case, you will receive the permit directly via your service account.
• Communication with GGL also takes place via your service account.
• The remaining steps are identical to the written procedure.

Please note:

The Ministry of the Interior, Building and Digitalization of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is responsible for the formal review and approval (accompanying specialist authority in the state of implementation). The Joint Gaming Authority is responsible for the content.

The processing time is at least 3 months.

The period of validity is generally 5 years.

A shorter duration is possible in justified individual cases.

• Organizing games of chance, online poker permit
• Online poker may only be organized if a permit has been issued.
• You can submit an application for a permit to organize online poker to the Joint Gaming Authority of the federal states online or in writing.
• Responsible: Joint Gaming Authority of the federal states

Ministry of the Interior, Building and Digitalization Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania - Gambling Supervisory Authority in the role of formal review and approval (accompanying specialist authority in the implementing state).

The Joint Gaming Authority is responsible for the content.

Ministry of the Interior, Building and Digitalization Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania - Gambling Supervision in the role of formal review and approval (accompanying specialist authority in the state of implementation).

The Joint Gaming Authority is responsible for the content.

Forms available: No
Written form required: Yes
Informal application possible: No
Personal appearance necessary: No