Summary:
- PokerStars and bwin must refund two Dutch players’ poker losses in cases related to non licensed sites.
- The court’s ruling was in favor of the players looking to retrieve their losses on the sites operating outside the Netherlands laws.
- The operators must also pay interest and assorted legal fees and court cases totaling over $400,000.
European Court judge Evelien Rozeboon has issued a ruling in favor of two online poker players who filed a lawsuit against PokerStars and bwin Poker.
The two were seeking to get refunds of their poker losses on the operators’ sites in the Netherlands, arguing the platforms were not licensed according to the laws in the country and were, therefore, operating illegally.
PokerStars and bwin Poker Ordered to Pay Over $400,000
Judge Rozeboon’s separate rulings issued yesterday today ordered both operators to issue refunds in the amounts of the net losses registered by the players, along with interest, legal fees, and court cases.
In total, the amount would go over the $400,000 mark. PokerStars has been ordered to refund around $235,000 and €400, which represents the total of the funds deposited on PokerStars and lost between 2006 and 2021, along with a statutory interest, assorted court and legal fees, and extrajudicial collection costs.
The losses were primarily tied to online poker, but they also featured some losses from sports betting and online casino games.
Bwin was ordered to refund around €187,600, which is the plaintiff‘s net loss online between January 2018 and November 2019, along with a small statutory interest charge and assorted court fees.
PokerStars and Bwin were given 14 days to pay the judgment.
Since the plaintiffs in the two cases are unnamed according to Dutch law, both cases may be related to just one player.
The PokerStars case covered a decade and a half of online activity. The bwin case was only focused on two years.
“Groundbreaking” Rulings from the Judge
The plaintiffs were represented by an Amsterdam-based attorney, Benzi Loonstein.
He called the judge’s rulings “groundbreaking” with the potential to open the door to huge amounts of litigation in the future.
Loonstein revealed he was already busy working on behalf of around 15 other clients.
None of the two Malta-based companies disclosed plans to appeal the court rulings as allowed by Dutch law.
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