The 24-hour block (panic button): what triggers it and when it ends

The 24-hour block is the shortest block the 2021 German State Treaty on Gambling (GlüStV 2021) provides for. It is triggered by a single click on the panic button, entered in the OASIS block register without any confirmation prompt and, under § 6i(3) GlüStV 2021, ends "without an application after 24 hours from the moment the button was pressed". Anyone searching for how to lift a 24-hour block therefore has nothing to apply for. The procedure for longer blocks, with a written application, a minimum term and a waiting period, is explained on the page on how to lift an OASIS block; it does not apply to the short-term block.

The sources are § 6i(3) GlüStV 2021, the FAQ of the Regional Council (RP) Darmstadt and the overview of the Joint Gambling Authority of the German Länder (GGL), as of 08.10.2026.

The panic button obligation sits in § 6i(3) of the 2021 State Treaty on Gambling. It applies to sports betting, online casino games, online poker and virtual slot games on the internet. The operator must display a "clearly recognisable and unambiguously labelled button" whose activation triggers an immediate short-term block. The button must be shown permanently wherever participation in a game is possible.

The procedure under the statute:

• No confirmation prompt. After the button is pressed, the operator may not ask the player whether they really want the block (sentence 7).
• Entry in OASIS. The block is entered in the register like a regular block; the stated reason is the activation of the button (sentence 3).
• Timestamp. The exact time of the click is transmitted to the register and stored there (sentence 4). The 24 hours run from that moment.
• End without an application. The block ends after 24 hours (sentence 5).
• Deletion after two weeks. The personal data are deleted within two weeks after expiry, departing from the general retention period (sentence 6).

The statute speaks of a "button" (Schaltfläche), the RP and GGL of a "panic button", the German consumer centre (EVZ) of an "emergency button", and operators label it, for example, "24h Sofortsperre": all mean the same short-term block. According to the GGL, all licensed operators must offer this blocking option; the RP Darmstadt calls the procedure "mandatory for all online gambling operators licensed in Germany".

According to the RP Darmstadt, the purpose of the rule is a "low-threshold way of excluding oneself from play" compared with a block under §§ 8 et seq., "when a player notices anomalies in their gambling behaviour and wants to be excluded from play temporarily". The EVZ names acute loss of control as the occasion.

A self-exclusion or third-party block never ends automatically, according to the RP Darmstadt, not even after the chosen term. The 24-hour block, by contrast, is "lifted automatically, without an application for lifting having to be filed" once the period has passed, as the RP statistics page puts it. The clock runs from the stored timestamp: anyone who clicks at 21:40 is no longer blocked by this entry from 21:40 the following day.

An application to the RP Darmstadt is neither necessary nor provided for. § 6i(3) refers to § 8(1) and (2), § 8a(4) and § 23, but not to § 8b, which governs the lifting of regular blocks. The provision does not know any early lifting. Going by its wording, operator support cannot shorten the 24 hours either.

After the end, the record remains for at most two weeks. According to the RP Darmstadt, "for short-term blocks (24h block) […] the personal data are deleted two weeks after the block expires". According to the RP, no data are passed on to credit agencies such as Schufa for any type of block.

Anyone who wants to check whether another entry still exists after the 24 hours can apply to the RP for information on their block status. How the OASIS status request works is covered on its own page; the reply states whether a block exists and who entered it.

Because a confirmation prompt is not allowed, the button is also pressed by accident. The following cases from gutefrage.net are individual reports by players and operators, not official information.

• A pop-up and a held button. A player was startled by a window at Tipico and held down the button that read: "24h Sofortsperre bitte 3sek halten" (24h instant block, please hold for 3 seconds). His question: what happens to bets that are still open?
• No OASIS entry without verification. In the same case Tipico replied that the account had not yet been verified: "An entry in the cross-operator block register OASIS is therefore not possible." The block then applied only at the operator itself.
• Does it apply in an amusement arcade too? Another user wrote: "I must have caused this block unintentionally", and asked whether he had to "apply manually" for the lifting. Under § 6i(3) he does not: the block ends without an application.

On the arcade question: § 6i(3) declares § 8(2) applicable accordingly, and under that provision blocked players may not take part in public gambling. A short-term block entered in OASIS therefore applies for 24 hours at all connected venues, not only at the online operator where the click happened. According to the RP Darmstadt, connected venues include amusement arcades, casinos, sports betting operators, online casinos and lotteries with more than two draws per week. Who must run the check and which operators are not connected is explained in the overview of the OASIS block register and its status query.

Not every unwanted block is a 24-hour block. One player wanted to delete his account, went "to account block in the settings" and afterwards found a regular entry in OASIS. In another case, bwin or bet365 were said to have reported the player to OASIS after an account closure; afterwards he was also blocked in a betting shop. Such entries do not end after 24 hours but only via an application to the RP Darmstadt.

Both sit in the same register and act alike while they run; otherwise they differ (GlüStV 2021, RP Darmstadt):

Feature24-hour blockSelf-exclusion / third-party blockTriggerclick on the panic button, no promptapplication to the operator or to the RP DarmstadtLegal basis§ 6i(3)§§ 8 to 8bDuration24 hours from the clickself-exclusion at least 3 months (default 1 year), third-party block at least 1 yearEndautomatic, no applicationonly on written application, effective after 1 week or 1 month at the earliestData deletionwithin 2 weeks after expiry6 years after the block ends (§ 23(5))

For a regular block, the chosen term is only the earliest date for the lifting application. Anyone who applies for two months is automatically blocked for three, according to the RP; a third-party block always runs for at least one year. Which deadlines apply for three months, one year or an indefinite term is explained step by step on the page on OASIS block duration.

Data storage holds a second difference. For a regular block the chosen duration is stored; for the 24-hour block this field does not apply under § 6i(3) sentence 3, and the timestamp of the click is stored instead. The short-term block does not extend itself and does not turn into a self-exclusion.

The search query "lugas 24 stunden sperre" mixes up two systems. The short-term block is held in OASIS at the RP Darmstadt. LUGAS, by contrast, is the GGL's limit and activity file: the limit file counts deposits across all licensed operators, the activity file prevents parallel play with several operators. None of the sources mentions a 24-hour block in LUGAS.

LUGAS does have waiting times, and they are often mistaken for a block. Under § 6h(4), the "active" status is removed five minutes after signing off at the previous operator; after 30 minutes without input, the operator must sign the player off on its own. Raising the deposit limit takes effect only after seven days under § 6c(3), while lowering it applies without a waiting period. How the 1,000 euro monthly limit is counted against your LUGAS limit and when an increase is possible is explained on the deposit limit page.

Anyone who notices that 24 hours are not enough can apply for a self-exclusion with the operator or via the online form of the RP Darmstadt; the minimum term is three months. According to the GGL, the Federal Institute for Public Health (BIÖG) offers free telephone counselling on gambling addiction at 0800 1 37 27 00.