Online gambling in the Netherlands: another class action suit launches

The lawsuit aims to recoup player losses from before the Dutch online gambling market was regulated.

The Netherlands.- Another lawsuit has been lodged in the Netherlands in a bid to recoup player losses from online gambling operators that were active before the regulated online gambling market opened in October 2021.

The law firm Finch has formed a group called Gok-verlies-terug, which translates as ‘gambling loss refunds’, and has launched the suit against Kindred’s Unibet along with Bwin, PokerStars and bet365. The latter claims not to have been active in the Netherlands before regulation.

Koen Rutten, a lawyer at the firm, said: “Many foreign online casinos ignored the Dutch rules for a long time, assuming enforcement would not be serious. They have to account for that period, even though they now have a licence. It is not without reason that online casinos are being subjected to stricter regulations. At home behind their laptop or smartphone, people have been able to lose enormous amounts of money in a short period of time. In that environment, social control is completely absent.

“Illegal gambling providers are aware of this. They pull out all the stops to keep people playing as long as possible with promotions and bonuses. With our action we want to ensure the perpetrators are presented with the bill for these kinds of illegal practices.”

He said that if the litigation does not reach a quick settlement, the case has enough financial backing to take it all the way to the European court.

It’s not the first such suit to be filed in the Netherlands. Aiming to replicate similar cases in Germany and Austria, law firms including Loonstein Advocaten and Goldenstein are promoting themselves to gamblers, seeking more people to come on board for legal claims against operators. They say that operators allowed hundreds of thousands of Dutch people to gamble before online gambling was regulated in the Netherlands and argue that the gaming companies’ winnings were therefore obtained illegally.

In April, Overijssel District Court ordered Bwin and Pokerstars to refund a combined €450,000 in gambling losses incurred by two players before the Netherlands regulated online gambling in 2021. The cases were brought on the grounds that the operators had been providing gambling without a licence at the time.

The cases involve a player from Staphorst who lost €187,000 with Bwin between 2018 and 2019 and a player from Almelo who lost €217,000 with Pokerstars between 2006 and 2021. The Dutch gambling regulator, the KSA, only began issuing licences for online gambling in April 2021, and the regulated gambling market opened in October of the same year.