State treaty: All providers should have to block illegal games of chance

The federal states want to significantly expand the legal basis for web blocking in the fight against illegal gambling on the internet. In future, not only content providers, but also access providers will be obliged to block access to illegal lotteries and other online games of chance. According to the plan, this applies regardless of whether they are responsible for the content. In addition to complete blocking, selective measures such as the removal of individual page content should also be possible.

This is the result of a draft by the federal states for the 2021 reform of the Interstate Treaty on Gambling (GlüStV). The responsible state representatives have already notified the amendment to the EU Commission. If the Commission does not request any further adjustments as part of this "notification" by the end of the standstill period on 9 October or receives concerns from other member states. The text should be signed by the state governments and ratified by their parliaments. The extended network blocks would then be possible from May 2026.

The states want to close a loophole with this initiative. The current treaty only authorises official blocking orders against service providers that are expressly "responsible" within the meaning of sections 8 to 10 of the German Telemedia Act (TMG). This largely excludes the liability of neutrally acting service providers such as access providers and internet resellers. As a rule, they are therefore not responsible and cannot be used as the addressees of a blocking order. In the opinion of the federal states, this has made security defence ineffective.

Domain registrars included

The proposed new version dispenses with the criterion of "responsibility" under the TMG. The aim is to soon include access providers in particular in the circle of service providers obliged to block. To keep the tightened instrument appropriate and proportionate, access providers should only be able to be called upon if measures against organisers or intermediaries of illegal gambling are not feasible or not promising. In addition, the authorities would first have to involve other potential intermediaries if this could be effective.

State regulators should also be able to take better action against domain registrars and subordinate administrative bodies. These would no longer have to be named separately, according to the explanatory memorandum to the state treaty reform. According to the Digital Services Act (DSA), they are already considered to be equivalent to access providers as providers of an intermediary service and are therefore covered by the new, expanded regulation. DNS blocks, which are considered comparatively easy to circumvent, are to remain in place for now, as more extensive IP blocking harbours the risk of blocking other websites with legal content behind the IP address in question.

Major reform planned for 2029

According to the draft, international cooperation will also be strengthened: the licensing and supervisory authorities will be authorised to cooperate with foreign law enforcement and security agencies as well as the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) and to make enquiries. The Joint Gambling Authority of the federal states is to be relieved of administrative tasks.

At the same time, the evaluation of the GlüStV provided for by law is being carried out based on several commissioned studies. A report on this should be available by the end of the year. This should also bring up issues that have been postponed, such as enforcement, IP blocking, international data exchange and responsibilities. Maximilian Widera from the consultancy firm Bernstein emphasised to heise online that the decisive course would be set with a subsequent draft GlüStV 2029. By then at the latest, the state should also take control, for example through attractive legal offers, effective protection against gambling addiction and effective measures for a real decline in the black market.

(vbr)