Germany’s 2024 Gambling Tax Revenue Holds Steady at €2.49 Billion

It’s safe to say that alarm bells are beginning to sound across Germany’s regulated gambling sector as figures reveal Germany’s 2024 gambling tax revenues flatlined at €2.9 billion ($2.99 billion), somewhat bucking the upward trend of betting across the EU.

Barely matching its 2023 revenues, Germany’s lucrative tax windfall still secures its position as one of the top EU treasuries to benefit from regulated gambling taxable income, but upon closer inspection, it reveals several notable industry and regulatory flashpoints as a possible cause for its stagnating returns.

It wasn’t all bad news as Germany’s prominent sports betting tax revenues saw a 5% upturn in the first 11 months of 2024, however, these gains are quickly overshadowed by the troubling iGaming sector tax income.

Primarily because Germany’s online casino and slots tax revenues crashed 16% in the same period, amounting to a 47% compound loss since 2022 alone, according to data insights firm H2 Gambling Capital.

Detractors highlight tighter deposit limits, far heavier advertising restrictions, and a number of compliance burdens as a possible cause for Germany’s online casino sector’s licensed operators struggling to compete with the upsurge of unregulated offshore gambling sites.

The recent release of Germany’s languishing 2024 gambling tax figures has in fact renewed calls to relax industry regulatory controls which critics argue will prevent tax revenues being diverted elsewhere through illegal offshore betting operations.

The argument is based upon the uptick in black market gambling, which many believe accounts for Germany’s poor online gaming channelization rate of between 20%-40%. To give this figure some context, Danish and Swedish legislators have successfully managed to ensure that their channelization rate remains over 90%.

Industry figureheads continue to express their concerns that Germany’s ‘excessive taxation’ levels – particularly the 5.3% turnover tax – are actively diverting gamblers and perhaps more importantly, domestic taxable revenues, towards unregulated alternatives.

However, it’s not just the iGaming sector that is showing signs of revenue leakage, as despite the relative stability of the nation’s sizable sports betting market, industry stakeholders also point to a dramatic fall in overall stake volumes.

So much so, that they claim the €7.3 billion in gambling stakes – similar to the levels generated in the US – which were taken by sports betting operators in 2024 masks the true extent of these losses. This figure equates to a staggering 15% drop in total stakes wagered since lawmakers introduced the turnover tax in 2021.

Of course, German regulatory bodies such as the Gemeinsame Glücksspielbehörde der Länder (GGL) continue to downplay the extent of the black market’s reach, stating it only accounts for 4% of the nation’s total gambling activity.

Nevertheless, industry representatives maintain the disproportionate taxation levies are fundamentally counterproductive, as well as reiterating regulation bodies underestimate the black market’s impact.

Either way, unless something changes, the apparent undercurrent of black market gambling will no doubt continue to stunt Germany’s future gambling tax revenue growth in 2025.