The Higher Regional Court of Brandenburg ruled on October 16, 2023, that an online gambling operator must fully compensate a player for his losses. The player can breathe a sigh of relief; he had gambled away approximately €60,000 at the online casino.
He had accumulated the losses between 2017 and 2019 while participating in online slot machine games via a German-language website operated by the defendant. However, a general ban on online gambling was in effect in Germany until July 1, 2021. Since the defendant gambling provider violated this ban, the player sued for reimbursement of his losses.
The lawsuit was successful in the first instance at the Potsdam Regional Court. The Brandenburg Higher Regional Court dismissed the defendant’s appeal. It reasoned that online gambling was prohibited in Germany until July 1, 2021, according to Section 4 Paragraph 4 of the Interstate Treaty on Gambling. The defendant’s offer violated this prohibition. Since the concluded contracts were therefore void, the defendant had no legal claim to the stakes and had to reimburse the player for their losses.
The Higher Regional Court of Brandenburg also saw no reason to suspend the proceedings pending a decision by the European Court of Justice in a pending, comparable case. The prohibition of online gambling under the Interstate Treaty on Gambling serves public interests, such as protecting against gambling addiction and ruinous behavior. Therefore, the court clarified, the prohibition does not violate EU law.
“ The ruling shows that players have a good chance of recovering their losses from illegal online gambling. This also applies to losses incurred after July 1, 2021. Although the ban on online gambling was somewhat relaxed at that time, and gambling providers were able to apply for a license in Germany, online gambling remains prohibited without such a license ,” says lawyer István Cocron.
More information can be found on our topic page ” Online Casino & Online Sports Betting: Getting Money Back from Gambling “
