OASIS: what the player exclusion register is and how a lifting works

The abbreviation OASIS stands for a central register governed by the Glücksspielstaatsvertrag 2021 in §§ 8 to 8d and § 23. The register is kept by the Regierungspräsidium Darmstadt, for all sixteen federal states together. It contains exclusions of persons barred from taking part in permitted gambling. Anyone entered may not take part in any offering connected to the register.

The register knows two kinds of exclusion: the self-exclusion, entered on the person's own application, and the third-party exclusion, initiated by an operator or intermediary. Different minimum durations and different deadlines for a later lifting apply to each. OASIS is not a public list and not a credit report; its content is not freely accessible.

The Glücksspielstaatsvertrag obliges every operator and intermediary permitted in Germany to query the exclusion register before participation. That applies in the amusement arcade, the betting shop, the state casino and online operation alike. Anyone excluded is recognised by the system and may not take part. The exclusion therefore works across operators: a single entry closes the entire permitted market.

Covered are amusement arcades, betting outlets, state casinos, frequently drawn lotteries, online casino games, online poker, virtual slot machine games, horse-race betting and gaming machines on licensed premises. Not covered, under § 8(2) GlüStV 2021, are certain lotteries and certain horse-race bets. Anyone falling under an exception must check the exact conditions in the statute; the register gives no information about them.

A self-exclusion is applied for by the person themselves. The application can go to an operator or intermediary, or directly to the body responsible for the register, the Regierungspräsidium Darmstadt. It is not an admission and not a diagnosis, but an instrument the person concerned can use without giving reasons. The entry is made on application, not on suspicion.

The minimum duration under § 8a GlüStV 2021 is three months. The person can choose longer; the statute names no upper limit. Before it has expired, an application to lift the exclusion is ineffective. Anyone excluding themselves therefore decides the period, but not the deadlines the statute attaches to the lifting.

A third-party exclusion is entered by an operator or intermediary. The condition is that the operator's staff, a report by third parties or other factual indications suggest the person is at risk of gambling addiction or over-indebted, is not meeting their financial obligations, or risks stakes out of all relation to their income or assets. The threshold is therefore not arbitrariness but a suspicion defined by statute.

Before the exclusion is entered, the person concerned must have the opportunity to comment. Afterwards they are informed without delay, in writing, of the exclusion and of the procedure for lifting it. A third-party exclusion has a minimum duration of one year, not individually shortenable. Nor can an operator delete it earlier.

The Glücksspielstaatsvertrag 2021 is unambiguous here. § 8b GlüStV 2021 provides: without an application, the exclusion does not end. That holds even where a duration was stated at entry. An exclusion therefore does not run out, lapse or disappear from the register merely because time has passed.

The lifting is possible only on written application by the excluded person, at the earliest once the minimum duration under § 8a(6) GlüStV 2021 has expired. Anyone applying earlier receives not a lifting but a finding that the application is ineffective. For the excluded person that means: the initiative lies with them alone, and they must wait for the right moment.

The application goes to the authority that keeps the exclusion register, the Regierungspräsidium Darmstadt. Forwarding it through an operator is permissible, but not the quickest route. The Regierungspräsidium provides an online form. The fully digital route needs a BundID and the online ID function of the Personalausweis; the paper route a written application and a copy of a valid proof of identity.

The Regierungspräsidium Darmstadt publishes neither a processing time nor a fee. This page therefore names no figure. Anyone relying on third parties promising a quick removal for money pays for something only the authority can deliver. The application is the only route; anything else is not a lifting.

When the authority enters the lifting in the register, it does not take effect immediately. For a self-exclusion it takes effect at the earliest after one week, for a third-party exclusion at the earliest after one month. These deadlines stand in § 8b GlüStV 2021 and apply regardless of how long the exclusion lasted.

For a third-party exclusion the authority also informs whoever entered it, and third parties involved, of the application and their right to apply for a new exclusion. The legislature wants to prevent a lifting happening silently. For the excluded person that means: even after the waiting period, a new third-party exclusion can follow if the grounds for suspicion persist.

§ 8(4) GlüStV 2021 draws a further line. Operators and intermediaries are forbidden to work on excluded persons to make them apply for the exclusion to be lifted. Benefits such as bonuses or discounts for persons whose exclusion was lifted are also impermissible. An operator advertising such incentives breaches this provision.

The register reaches as far as the German permit does. An operator without a permit under the GlüStV 2021 is not connected to OASIS and does not query it. That is a statement about the reach of supervision, not about what anyone should do. A casino without OASIS is not a German operator; it is subject to other rules or to none.

For whether an offering is permitted in Germany, only a permit under the GlüStV 2021 counts. A permit from Malta, Gibraltar, Curaçao or Anjouan is not a German permit. The Gemeinsame Glücksspielbehörde der Länder publishes the official whitelist at gluecksspiel-behoerde.de. Only those on it hold a German permit; it is the only binding point of check.

The legal position also holds outside the register. § 285 StGB makes taking part in an unlicensed public game of chance an offence, regardless of whether an OASIS exclusion exists. Anyone who has had themselves excluded had a reason; no extent of a register cancels it. This page states that as the legal position, not as a recommendation.

The Bundeszentrale für gesundheitliche Aufklärung runs the free, anonymous telephone counselling service on gambling addiction on 0800 1 37 27 00. The portal check-dein-spiel.de offers a self-test plus chat and email counselling. These services are free, confidential and open to relatives too. Anyone unsure whether an exclusion or a lifting is the right step gets expert answers there.

Every federal state maintains a Landesfachstelle Glücksspielsucht with local counselling centres. The counselling is free, anonymous on request and open to relatives. Your own state's Landesfachstelle refers people on locally. These contact details belong not only here but on every page of this website; they stand in a visible place because OASIS searches often go together with acute distress.