PokerStars And Bwin Ordered To Refund Losses In The Netherlands

Reputable betting companies Flutter and Entain must repay players a big amount of money due to licensing issue, the Dutch court ruled on April 17. The Overijssel District Court ruled that Flutter’s PokerStars and Entain-owned Bwin violated Dutch law by operating without a license prior to April 2021.

Back then the Dutch Remote Gambling Act came into effect, which saw the state legalizing and regulating online betting activities.

According to CasinoScout, Bwin need to repay €187,622 plus interest to the player. The Entain subsidiary is ordered to refund the losses for bets placed between January 2018 and November 2019.

Lawyer Benzi Loonstein argued that Bwin took no action to slow the player’s gambling activities despite his obvious indicators of addiction. On the other hand, Flutter will refund $230,705 and €400 plus interest to the PokerStars client for the bets that occurred between 2006 and 2021.

Not The First Time

Dutch court ruled in favour of an Unibet customer in November 2023 as well. The Netherlands court ordered both Unibet and an unrevealed betting company to repay 93,000 and 124,000 euros respectively to the players.

This is not the first time Benzi Loonstein appealed to online bettors to consider filling suit against operators unlicensed in the Netherlands.

At the end of 2022 the attorney contended that unregulated companies victimized young and vulnerable individuals. Therefore, Loonstein advised players to pursue legal action against betting companies. Loonstein believes that online betting companies are the main reason why young players fall deep into dept.

“They can be reached 24/7 by people, while they do not see the damage being done. 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,” said Loonstein and added:

“With the rulings made, the court has shown that the behavior of the online casinos was unacceptable and that the losses must now be reimbursed.”

Controversial Malta Law

Often termed Bill 55, this Malta’s law allows betting companies to ignore foreign court rulings.

Malta passed this law last year, protecting bookmakers from legal liability. However, the law has proved controversial so far. Germany’s gambling regulator believes that Malta’s Bill 55 is incompatible with European law.

Last year the European Commission decided to inspect the law closely and requested additional details from the Malta authorities.

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