Germany’s online gambling system faced a major disruption last weekend. A glitch in the LUGAS system shut down deposits and new user registrations for ten hours.
This happened on Saturday, 15 March. The outage affected all legal gambling operators in the country.
The regulator confirms expired certificate caused the issue
LUGAS is run by the German gambling regulator GGL. It is required for all legal operators to track player limits and ensure compliance.
The GGL said existing players with credit could still play. But new users could not register or deposit money during the outage.
The issue was traced to a failed digital certificate. The IT provider, Dataport, said an expired certificate was replaced, but the new one didn’t work. This made the system temporarily unavailable.
The system is back online but criticism grows
Dataport resolved the issue the same evening. Since then, the LUGAS system has been working again.
However, the gambling industry is not happy. Operators say offshore betting sites were not affected, giving them an unfair edge during the blackout.
Industry leaders call for full investigation and 24/7 support
The president of the German Sports Betting Association (DSWV), Mathias Dahms, said legal betting was blocked on a Bundesliga Saturday. This led players to illegal sites.
He warned that the black market has no rules or player protection. He also said the government lost tax revenue.
The DSWV demanded a full review of what went wrong. It said this outage proves the need for 24/7 IT support, something the industry has requested for years.