Overijssel District Court of the Netherlands has ordered the gaming companies Bwin and Pokerstars to refund a total of €450,000 ($483,027) to two Dutch players who lost prior to the country regulating online gaming in 2021, Focus Gaming News reported April 19.
The players sued, arguing that the operators had been providing unlicensed gambling when their losses happened. KSA, the Netherlands gaming regulator, began issuing online licenses in April 2021 and the regulated marketplace went online in October 2021.
The court ruled that without a license, the agreements between the players and operators were invalid.
An attorney who has dozens of clients who similarly lost money to unlicensed operators says the ruling will likely lead to more lawsuits.
Attorney Benzi Loonstein told Focus Gaming News: “We have been working intensively on this for a year and a half now. The gambling companies clearly ignored their duty of care. I assist clients who have gambled away their deceased parents’ inheritance in a few days or whose savings account that was intended for their old age has disappeared. Such stories are very poignant. These are situations that the gambling companies are not aware of.”
The horror stories had little to do with the court rulings, he said. “They made a purely factual ruling: there was no license for the Dutch market and therefore the agreement with each customer was annulled,” Loonstein said.
