In Germany and the Gemeinsamen Glucksspielbehorde der Lander (GGL) gaming regulator has announced that it wants all of the nation’s Internet service providers to begin voluntarily blocking access to a trio of Lottoland-branded domains.

The federal watchdog used an official Friday press release to detail that the sites at Lottoland.com, Lottohelden.de and Lottohelden.com allow punters to place online wagers on the outcome of lottery draws in violation of the country’s State Treaty on Gambling (GluNeuRStV). The body also stated that these domains have been illegally operating in Germany ‘for years’ with their offerings seen as ‘particularly precarious’ due to the fact that many players ‘believe they are entering a lottery game.’

Illicit interest:

Ronald Benter serves as the Co-Chief Executive Officer for the GGL and he used the press release to proclaim that his organization ‘consistently uses all the instruments at its disposal’ to block access to illegal iGaming domains and recently led efforts to have the Lottoland-branded trio precluded from utilizing the services of ‘several payment service providers.’ The watchdog additionally proclaimed that his enterprise has thus utilized ‘regulatory orders’ so as to compel locally-licensed Internet service providers ‘to block access to the unauthorized offer via Internet access.’

Read a statement from Benter…

“Raising awareness among Internet service providers is extremely important. Providers who, despite our order, do not prevent access to unauthorized offers are threatened with fines.”

Quintuple checks:

The GGL revealed that it initiated legal proceedings against the Lottoland-branded trio in July and was subsequently successful in getting the sites blocked by a pair of local Internet service providers. The regulator moreover pronounced that these checks were earlier this month joined by a further three such cut-offs to leave the domains unavailable via ‘the five Internet service providers with the highest turnover’.

Fresh focus:

For his part and the other Co-Chief Executive Officer for the GGL, Benjamin Schwanke, used the press release to note that his organization has been responsible for combating illegal online gambling under the tenets of the GluNeuRStV since July. The experienced professional went on to assert that the regulator now has the ability to use a number of ‘enforcement instruments’ including payment and network blocking with this latter mechanism ‘aimed at all Internet service providers who act as access brokers for illegal online gambling offers.’

A statement from Schwanke read…

“We are aware that we are entering new legal territory and that our actions will be subject to judicial review but the task of the GGL is to consistently implement the GluNeuRStV and thus law and order. For us, the priority in combating the black market is enforcement against providers who are not on the official whitelist.”