Gambling and player protection: Over 22,400 players already blocked

After the State Gambling Treaty (GlüStV) 2021 came into force last July, the Oasis player barring system was also activated a month later. Since then, 22,435 people have had themselves barred from gambling, according to the Darmstadt Regional Council. This was reported by the news portal Zeit Online on Sunday.

The blocking system is cross-provider and cross-platform. The exclusion applies to terrestrial gambling offers such as casinos and arcades, as well as online casinos and sports betting on the Internet. Before a guest is granted access to the gaming offers, the operator would have to check the person's data against the database.

The OASIS blocking system has already been in place since July 1, 2013, when it has already been used successfully in terrestrial gaming arcades in Rhineland-Palatinate and Hesse. As of December 31, 2020, there were already 46,948 blocking records.

According to the 2020 Annual Report of the gambling supervisory authorities of the federal states, 85% of these were self-blocks and 15% were third-party blocks. When the GlüStV comes into force in 2021, connection to OASIS will be mandatory for all licensed gambling and sports betting providers.

Successful launch of the limit file

In addition to numerous other player protection measures such as the panic button, the maximum stake of 1 euro for slot machines, and the ban on a parallel play, the GlüStV also introduced the limit file for online gambling https://luckylife.in/destination-casino-review/.

Accordingly, users of sports betting and gambling platforms cannot deposit more than 1,000 euros per month across providers. Eleven providers are currently connected to the system, the Saxony-Anhalt state administration office reported. By December 8, 2021, 116,078 players had already registered.

Numerous players would have deposited more money to date, reported the chairwoman of the nationwide professional association of gambling addiction Ilona Füchtenschnieder, who told of cases from her professional practice.

Without providers ever having checked whether people even had that much money available.

Better control is therefore necessary. In addition, according to the white list of the state administration officials, not a single provider for online poker and slots games has yet received a license.

Already, 49 providers for slots games and seven online poker operators had submitted an application. According to the authority, the applications are currently still being processed. It is likely that the need for blocking and limiting files will increase once the licenses are issued.