Germany Licensed Gambling Operators and Domains: GGL Whitelist Snapshot

The GGL whitelist dated 7 September 2026 contains 45 legal entities with at least one listed website across sports betting, virtual slots or online poker. BETTIMES counted 118 exact website entries representing 116 unique hostnames. Categories overlap, so these figures must not be added together as separate operator totals.

This snapshot is for players, compliance teams, affiliates, suppliers and researchers checking whether a German-facing gambling website appears in the official record. It preserves the regulator's exact legal-entity names and website strings, explains how the totals were calculated and separates GGL-regulated online products from state-level online casino permissions.

What the GGL whitelist is

Germany's State Treaty on Gambling 2021 requires the competent authorities to publish a joint official list of permitted gambling organisers and intermediaries. The Gemeinsame Glücksspielbehörde der Länder, or GGL, hosts that official whitelist.

The list is broader than the online products analysed here. It also covers lotteries, commercial gaming brokerage, horse betting and other permitted activities. It includes permissions supervised by the GGL and by German state authorities. The GGL says the record is updated when required and at least monthly.

This article filters the official record to three product categories for which the GGL is the named authority: sports betting, virtual slot machine games and online poker. The Germany licence guide explains the wider regulatory structure; this page is the dated entity-and-domain dataset.

Snapshot totals and definitions

These are BETTIMES calculations from the official whitelist page, not licence-volume statistics published by the regulator. A legal entity is counted once in each category in which it appears. An exact website entry preserves the string shown by the GGL, including a path such as `pokerstars.de/sports`. A normalized hostname removes the path and a leading `www.` before deduplication.

The product rows therefore overlap. Seventeen of the 45 legal entities appear in more than one selected category. Eighteen hostnames are recorded across more than one category. The combined row deduplicates both kinds of overlap.

Germany licensed operators and their recorded websites

The following table reproduces the selected whitelist records in legal-entity order. Product labels are shortened for readability, while website strings remain exactly as recorded on the source page. A website can appear under more than one entity or permission.

Why one brand or domain can map to several records

A commercial brand is not the same thing as a licensed legal entity, and a hostname is not the same thing as a product permission. The whitelist can therefore show different entities for different products under a related brand. It can also record one hostname under several product categories.

For example, `pokerstars.de/sports` is recorded for sports betting under Cyan Blue International Limited, while `pokerstars.de` and `pokerstars.de/vegas` are recorded for Reel Germany Limited under online poker and virtual slots. Likewise, `games.tipico.de` appears in virtual-slot records for Tipico Games Limited and Tipico Karlsruhe Limited. The correct check starts with the exact product, legal entity and URL rather than the brand name alone.

The gambling operator explainer gives more detail on brands, operating companies and suppliers. When the purpose is legal verification, use the contractual entity or terms-page entity and trace it back to the current official record.

GGL products and state-level online casino licences are different

The GGL says it is responsible for permits and supervision for online poker and virtual slot machine games, as well as the interstate online activities assigned to it. Online casino games such as roulette, blackjack and baccarat follow a different route under the State Treaty and may be organised or licensed by individual states.

The same whitelist version contains five legal entities with website records under the separate online casino category. The records name Merkur Bets Malta Limited, NOVOLINE.DE GmbH, Skill On Net Limited, Staatliche Lotterie- und Spielbankverwaltung and Tipico Karlsruhe Limited. Their listed sites include `merkur-spiel.de`, `casino.novoline.de`, `drueckglueck.de/casino`, `spielbanken-bayern-online.de` and four Tipico or Goldrummel website entries.

Those five entities are excluded from the 45-entity GGL calculation because the regulator field and legal route differ. A site can be present in both parts of the whitelist for different products. The Germany market profile and German virtual-slot licence record should be used alongside this distinction.

How to verify a German gambling website

The GGL's player guidance on unauthorised gambling directs users to the whitelist and says individual websites can be searched manually. Use the live source rather than relying only on this dated snapshot.

1. Copy the hostname from the browser address bar and note any product-specific path.
2. Open the current GGL whitelist and search for the hostname without guessing from the logo or brand.
3. Match the exact product category, such as sports betting, virtual slots or online poker.
4. Record the named legal entity and compare it with the site's terms, legal notice and account contract.
5. Read the listed authority and permit details. A state authority may be responsible for a separate product.
6. Confirm the website itself displays the under-18 prohibition, permit and supervising authority required by section 6e(3) of the State Treaty.
7. Repeat the check when the entity, URL, product or ownership changes.

The detailed licence-verification guide explains how to preserve the evidence and avoid treating a logo or copied licence number as proof.

What the snapshot does not prove

This dataset does not test whether every hostname currently resolves, redirects or accepts registrations. It does not audit geolocation, game availability, payment methods, advertising, player protection or the site's compliance after the whitelist observation date. It also does not establish that an unlisted path under a listed hostname belongs to the same authorised product.

The GGL page excludes several categories from its public whitelist, including local gaming hall operators, certain lottery acceptance points and brokers, local sales outlets, small lotteries and activities governed by horse-racing law. Absence from this filtered online dataset is therefore not enough to conclude that every other gambling activity is unlawful.

Finally, the list is not a ranking. It contains regulatory records, not an assessment of customer service, withdrawal speed, game value, financial resilience or commercial performance.

Methodology and refresh policy

BETTIMES observed the official whitelist on 21 September 2026. The page identified its own version date as 7 September 2026. We parsed the legal-entity cards, selected records where the product was sports betting, virtual slot machine games or online poker, required the named authority to be the GGL and retained entries with at least one recorded website.

Counts were then produced at three levels: legal entity, exact website string and normalized hostname. Normalization lowercased the hostname, removed a leading `www.` and excluded the path. We did not merge corporate groups, brands or similar company names. The source list contained 166 entity cards across all available product categories before filtering.

This page should be reviewed whenever the GGL publishes a new whitelist version and at least monthly if it remains an operational reference. Any future update should preserve the source version, observation date, counting rules and changes to entities or website entries.

Frequently asked questions

How many licensed online gambling operators are listed in Germany?

In the GGL whitelist version dated 7 September 2026, BETTIMES counted 45 unique legal entities with a website entry across GGL-supervised sports betting, virtual slots or online poker. This is a filtered snapshot, not the total number of all German gambling permits or all entries in the whitelist.

Is every .de gambling site legal in Germany?

No. A `.de` domain is required for internet gambling under section 6e(3) of the State Treaty, but the suffix alone proves nothing. Check the exact website, product category, legal entity, permit and supervising authority in the current official whitelist. A listed hostname may not cover every product shown on it.

Is a GGL virtual-slots licence the same as an online casino licence?

No. Germany treats virtual slot machine games and online poker as GGL-supervised products, while online casino table games can follow state-level permissions. The whitelist presents these as separate categories. A virtual-slots entry should not be used as evidence that roulette, blackjack or baccarat is authorised on the same website.

Why can one domain appear under several categories or entities?

Permissions attach to a defined entity, product and website record. Related brands can use different operating companies for sports betting, poker or virtual slots, while one hostname may host more than one permitted product. Verification must therefore match all three fields instead of treating the brand or domain as one universal licence.

How often is the GGL whitelist updated?

The GGL says the whitelist is updated when required and at least once a month. Because a licence status or website record can change between versions, use the live regulator page for a decision. Keep the version date and access date in any compliance file or published comparison.