German and EU courts open path for players to reclaim billions in losses

German and European courts have opened the way for players to sue online gambling operators to recover losses accumulated between 2008 and 2021, when online betting was illegal in Germany, citing Deutsche Welle. The main targets are foreign companies that operated in the country without a local licence. Compensation could reach billions of euros, according to the report.

The Stuttgart Higher Regional Court ruled in September 2025 in favour of a player from Baden-Württemberg who sued Malta-based Tipico Games. The player had lost about €10,000 between 2020 and 2022. Because online gambling was still prohibited in Germany until 2021, the court concluded that the operator had received the money without legal basis and should return it. Tipico Games appealed to the Federal Court of Justice (BGH).

At a preliminary hearing in mid-September 2026, the BGH agreed with a central point of the players' argument: anyone who lost money on platforms without a valid German licence is entitled to restitution. A final ruling in the case is expected in January 2027.

In April 2026, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) reinforced that position by ruling that each member state has the right to prohibit or restrict online gambling individually, even where European legislation permits it. The ruling opens space for German citizens to seek compensation for losses incurred while the national prohibition was in force.

Almost all forms of online betting were prohibited in Germany from 2008 to 2021, on the grounds of combating addiction, protecting consumers and preventing fraud. In July 2021, some companies returned to operating with a licence. The prohibition was widely disregarded by operators with providers based in other EU countries, especially Malta and Cyprus.

Thomas Dünchheim, a lawyer specialising in gambling legislation at the international firm Greenberg Traurig, said law firms are already gathering clients to prepare large collective actions, including the use of artificial intelligence tools to identify potential claimants. He said the pendulum is increasingly tilting towards the consumer and compared the phenomenon to the Dieselgate actions against Volkswagen, the 2015 scandal in which the carmaker admitted installing software in millions of diesel vehicles to cheat emissions tests.

Dünchheim also warned about the business model forming around the claims. He said some lawyers will bundle the small cases, group them and perhaps push them with the help of legal financing companies, describing it as good business for everyone involved, with the betting companies that operated illegal games in Germany left to pay.

Tobias Hayer, a psychologist at the Institute for Public Health and Nursing Research at the University of Bremen, said online gambling is particularly dangerous because of four characteristics: anonymity and the resulting absence of social control, access available 24 hours a day, the ease of digital transactions without cash and the high frequency of games. Hayer said he was not surprised by the verdicts but expressed an ambivalent view of their effects, saying that on one hand he could imagine relief for many gamblers who had dependency problems, while on the other, if those people suddenly received a lot of money without having treated their difficulties, there was naturally a risk of relapse.

Dünchheim warned that the legal path may not be simple for all claimants. German law provides for restitution only when the gambler himself has not acted illegally. He pointed to a relevant contradiction: many players deliberately sought out platforms in this grey zone precisely because unlicensed operators, by not paying taxes, offered potentially higher winnings. He said the betting company's defence would naturally argue that the player also took part in an illegal game and was therefore acting illegally, and that this interpretive question is not simple.

The Tipico case illustrates that complexity. Although based in Malta, the company was founded in 2004 by a group of German lawyers, employs thousands of people worldwide and has sponsored major German football clubs. The operator argued it acted in compliance with European law because it held a licence in an EU member state. According to Dünchheim, however, that premise was overturned by the recent decisions: a licence issued in another country of the bloc is not valid in Germany because, unlike in other areas, gambling legislation is not harmonised across the European Union.