Responsible gambling and where to find help

Anyone who notices that stakes, playing time or debts no longer fit their everyday life has three tools in Germany: free counselling, blocks via the central exclusion system OASIS, and technical blocks on their own device or account. The BIÖG telephone counselling service on gambling addiction is free of charge on 0800 1 37 27 00, Monday to Thursday from 10 am to 10 pm and Friday to Sunday from 10 am to 6 pm.

The rules for blocks are set out in the Interstate Treaty on Gambling 2021 (GlüStV, § 6i, §§ 8 to 8d, § 23; text according to gesetze-bayern.de, retrieved on 07.10.2026). The OASIS block register is run by the state of Hesse through the Regional Council of Darmstadt (RP Darmstadt), uniformly for all federal states. Applying for a block and applying to end it cost players nothing; only the connected operators pay.

The Joint Gambling Authority of the German states (GGL) points players, according to its FAQ page, to three contact points: the free BIÖG service number 0800 1 37 27 00, the online service check-dein-spiel.de and the portal bundesweit-gegen-gluecksspielsucht.de.

Forum posts describe that a block alone is not always enough. On Reddit (r/spielsucht) one player writes that he had himself blocked in OASIS but keeps finding new online casino sites. Another post (r/GamblingAddiction) is titled “OASIS alone is not nearly enough for gambling addiction, in my opinion”. In r/Finanzen a user describes switching to a broker on his phone after his OASIS block and losing €8,000. Counselling, blocks and technical filters therefore work at different points and complement each other.

For sports betting, online casino games, online poker and virtual slot games, § 6i (3) GlüStV requires a clearly labelled button to be permanently visible wherever play is possible. One click triggers a short-term block, without a confirmation prompt. The block is entered in OASIS, so it applies to all connected operators, and it ends without an application after 24 hours. The data is deleted within two weeks after the 24-hour block expires. RP Darmstadt describes this button as a low-threshold option for conspicuous gambling behaviour.

On gutefrage.net players report pressing the button by accident (“24h instant block, please hold for 3 sec”) and ask whether they are now also blocked in amusement arcades. In one of these cases a licensed operator replied that the account was not yet verified, so “an entry in the cross-operator exclusion file OASIS is therefore not possible”. The block then stayed limited to that account.

A self-exclusion is requested by the player, either with the operator or directly with RP Darmstadt. Under § 8a (6) GlüStV it lasts at least one year as a rule; on request a shorter period is possible, but not under three months. Anyone who enters two months is set to three months, according to RP Darmstadt. Longer periods can be chosen: one user on gutefrage.net blocked himself for five years. After the entry, the excluded person promptly receives a notice in text form with information on how the block can be ended.

A third-party block can be requested by operators or third parties such as relatives if there are indications of gambling addiction or over-indebtedness, or if stakes are out of proportion to income and assets. According to RP Darmstadt this requires a documented reason, ID copies of both persons and the form “SpSF”; the person concerned is heard beforehand. A third-party exclusion always lasts at least one year.

None of these blocks ends simply because time has passed. Only after the minimum period can a written application with a handwritten signature be filed, and the lifting takes effect no earlier than one week after receipt by the authority for a self-exclusion, and one month for a third-party exclusion. How long this can take in practice is shown by a post on gutefrage.net: “I have been waiting for 3.5 months for my self-exclusion to be lifted.” Operators may not push excluded players to lift an OASIS block, and may not grant bonuses or discounts after a block has been lifted.

According to RP Darmstadt, connected providers include amusement arcades, state casinos, sports betting, bookmakers, online horse betting, online casino games, online poker, virtual slot games, lotteries with more than two draws per week and gaming machines in pubs and restaurants. This list defines where the OASIS block applies: a block with a licensed operator ends up in OASIS and counts online as well as in the arcade. Operators check account access with surname, first name and date of birth; the answer is only “blocked” or “not blocked”. Breaks set personally with an operator, by contrast, apply only to that one operator, as an answer on gutefrage.net notes.

Offers without an entry in the GGL whitelist are not covered. A full-text search of the whitelist (as of 02.10.2026) returned 0 hits for 7Signs, Wild Tokyo, MyStake and Sportaza. According to the GGL, such operators lack protective measures such as deposit limits or self-exclusion. User comments on casino.guru confirm this in individual cases: on MyStake they say “no responsible gaming tools”, on Sportaza “Unable to close game account even if you report being addicted”. Outside Germany OASIS does not apply, according to answers on gutefrage.net, for example in a Dutch state casino.

Where OASIS does not reach, technical blocks on your own device step in. On gutefrage.net one answer points to filter software “that filters out all gambling sites” and names Betblocker, Gamban and GamBlock. Such programs block sites regardless of whether an operator is connected to OASIS. Whether your bank blocks payments to gambling sites is up to the bank itself; it is worth asking.

With licensed operators, the cross-operator deposit limit, the LUGAS limit, caps the sum of all deposits in a calendar month; anyone who wants to enter more than €1,000 is asked to correct it. Once the limit is used up, the operator rejects every further deposit. In addition, operator-specific deposit and loss limits must be changeable at any time and free of charge, according to the GGL. No operator may charge fees for setting or changing a limit.