Unibet and an unnamed gambling brand have been ordered by a court in the Netherlands to refund losses to gamblers. [Image: Shutterstock.com]

Players win big

It’s not every day that the house refunds a gambler’s losses. However, a court in the Netherlands has ruled that Unibet, along with another unnamed brand, has to do so for illegally offering gambling.

Online gambling only became legal in the country in October 2021, but various big-name companies catered to Netherlands gamblers beforehand. A number of players who lost significant sums on these platforms pursued legal action, claiming that the operators are not entitled to keep the money they earned from acting contrary to the law.

judges in the separate cases ruled in favor of the plaintiffs

Neither of the defendants appeared in court and the judges in the separate cases ruled in favor of the plaintiffs. This means that Unibet has to refund €93,000 ($99,365) to one person, while the other operator has to give back €124,000 ($132,487).

The battle isn’t over

Unibet revealed that a human error led to it not appearing in court to mount a defense. It intends to appeal the ruling, which means a hearing will take place at some point in the future.

The lawyer who represented the gamblers in these two cases, Benzi Loonstein, said that his clients “understand that the battle is not yet finally over. But this development is only positive.”

The decisions do not automatically mean that other gamblers now have a clear precedent to receive refunds too. This is because they were default judgments, which don’t hold the same weight as a ruling delivered when a defense was presented.

These types of lawsuits are very common in other European countries, most notably in Austria and Germany. Similar arguments have successfully led to plaintiffs winning nearly all of the 7,000 relevant cases, leading to gamblers earning back tens of millions of euros from operators.

Malta backing operators

A lot of major gambling operators, including Unibet, have a base in Malta. The country has been trying to protect operators by enacting a new amendment to legislation in June stating companies are able to ignore legal judgments in other countries when gamblers are looking for refunds.

Some have claimed that this amendment is a breach of European Union rules, which has led to the commencement of an investigation by the European Commission, which could take years to conclude.