Crypto casinos in Germany: legal or illegal?

If you inform yourself beforehand on comparison portals for casinos with crypto, you will find well-known names such as BCGAME or Rainbet there, but no German license: the State Treaty on Gambling (GlüStV) simply does not allow cryptocurrencies as a means of payment, as the Joint Gambling Authority of the Länder (GGL) itself explains. Important for the classification: A foreign license from Curaçao does not make an offer a mere gray area, but participation in a public gambling game without a German permit is punishable according to § 285 StGB, provided that the player knew or accepted with approval that there is no German permit.

What the State Treaty on Gambling says about Cryptocurrencies

Whether the search in the address bar starts with Casino Online, online casino or even with best online casino, the result hardly differs for German users: advertising banners, star ratings and a bonus that can hardly be compared. The GlüStV has been the nationwide uniform basis for legal online gambling in Germany since 2021. An online casino needs a permission from GGL for this, and this permission is subject to fixed conditions: deposits exclusively in euros, a deposit limit of 1,000 euros per month across all providers and complete traceability of every transaction.

Cryptocurrencies do not meet this requirement, because wallet-to-wallet transfers remain anonymous or pseudonymous and cannot be easily subordinated to the requirements for money laundering prevention. An operator who offers Bitcoin or Ethereum as a deposit method can therefore not receive a GGL license in Germany, regardless of how reputable the platform otherwise seems.

Why a Curaçao license does not replace a German permit

BC.Game (License number 5536/JAZ), Stake Casino (OGL/2024/1451/0918) and Vavada (OGL/2024/252/0153) all hold a license from the Curaçao Gaming Control Board. Depending on the source, Rainbet is managed with a Curaçao license or with an Anjouan license from the operator RBGAMING N.V., the information on this is inconsistent. Such licenses check payout integrity and money laundering prevention according to Caribbean law, but do not say anything about whether the provider is allowed to operate in Germany. From the point of view of GlüStV, the only thing that matters is whether there is a permit from GGL, and these four providers do not have it.

The New block List since May 2026 and How Crypto Payments Bypass It

Until recently, the GGL could only take action against the operators of illegal sites themselves, because according to a judgment of the Federal Administrative Court of March 2025, it lacked the legal basis to oblige Internet providers to block. The amendment to the GlüStV closes this gap: Since May 2026, Telekom, Vodafone and 1&1 have had to block access to unlicensed domains via DNS blocking by order of GGL.

A study published in March 2026 by the Blockchain Research Lab on behalf of GGL puts the market share of unregulated providers at 22.97 percent, with an estimated gross player income of 547 million euros, significantly more than the four percent mentioned by the authority itself in June 2024.

Why Crypto Casinos Deliberately circumvent GGL’s ban on payments

In addition to domain blocking, GGL has been relying on payment blocking for years and prohibits payment service providers such as PayPal or credit card networks from processing transactions for unlicensed providers. This is exactly where the advantage of cryptocurrencies lies from the operator’s point of view, because a wallet-to-wallet payment does not pass by any payment service provider that GGL could address. A cashier area that mainly or exclusively accepts Bitcoin, Ethereum, LTC or USDT thereby structurally circumvents the payment ban and often remains usable even if the associated domain has long been on the blocked list.

What § 285 StGB means for players in practice

Contrary to what many players assume, the criminal law on gambling is not only directed against operators. § 285 StGB expressly also makes participation in an unauthorized public gambling punishable by imprisonment of up to six months or a fine of up to 180 daily rates, as confirmed by the GGL in its official player FAQ.

Only those who act intentionally, i.e. who knew or at least accepted it with approval, that the provider does not have a German permit, are liable to prosecution. Anyone who can credibly rely on an error remains unpunished. In practice, however, investigative authorities check this in individual cases, including on the basis of bank transactions and user lists of seized platforms.

License Check: BCGAME, Stake, Vavada and Duel Casino compared

All four brands heavily advertised on the German network can be classified on the basis of publicly accessible license data. The following overview shows which supervision you are actually under and whether a GGL permit is available.

Anbieter	Licensing Authority	License number	Primary payment method	GGL License
BCGAME	Curaçao Gaming Control Board	License number 5536/JAZ	Cryptocurrencies	No
Stake	Curaçao Gaming Authority	OGL/2024/1451/0918	Cryptocurrencies	No
Vavada	Curaçao Gaming Authority	OGL/2024/252/0153	Cryptocurrencies	No
Duel	Anjouan (Union of Comoros)	ALSI-202411026-FI1	Cryptocurrencies	No

None of the four providers appear in the GGL whitelist, and none can appear there as long as the offer includes cryptocurrencies as a core payment method. For players, this means: The license notice in the footer does not protect against § 285 StGB if the German permission is missing.

Why the coin indicator disguises real losses

Another difference to a classic online casino does not concern the law, but the perception. Crypto platforms usually display the account balance in coins instead of euros, about 0.0021 BTC instead of about 140 euros. Gambling addiction prevention specialists observe that this effect makes losses seem more abstract, because a fraction of a cryptocurrency seems less tangible than a euro amount. Raminta Diliso, Financial harm manager at the British consulting organization GamCare, describes exactly this distance between crypto balances and the actual monetary value as a factor that can favor riskier gambling behavior.

If the price rises during a session, it also blurs whether a win at the table or a price gain in the wallet is responsible for the good feeling. If the price falls, the reverse effect intensifies, and the real euro loss remains hidden behind the coin number.

The license check before the first deposit

A best online casino can be recognized for German players not by the bonus amount or the game selection, but by a single question: is the provider on the GGL whitelist? If you clarify this before the first deposit, you will avoid both the loss of the bets and a possible investigation procedure due to § 285 StGB. The following steps help with the classification:

• Compare the license notice on the homepage with the official whitelist of GGL, not just check the logo in the footer.
• View payment options: If only crypto is available, a German license cannot be available.
• Access the domain without a VPN. A redirect to a GGL information page indicates an active lock.
• If you have any doubts about your own gambling behavior, use the BZgA’s free advice service.

Anyone who goes through these four points will know within a few minutes whether it is a regular online casino or an offer outside the German legal framework. So before the next deposit is made, it is important to first check the GGL license status of the domain, not the amount of the welcome bonus.