Illegal casino operations in The Netherlands

On December 5th 2022 a Dutch law firm announced that it has subpoenas 4 casino operators for their illegal operation in The Netherlands.

Something that many players did not know was that until October 2021 online gambling was prohibited in The Netherlands if the casino operator did not have an issued gambling license from the KSA(Dutch Gambling Authority). This means that many big casino operators (whether Curacao or Maltese based) offered their services illegally in The Netherlands.

Since October 2021 the KSA started to issue gambling licenses and several casino's have obtained a license and are legally allowed to operate here.

What was unknown (until a Dutch law firm shaked this up with subpoenas) is that if a dutch player ever gambled before this date (or after if the operator has no KSA license) his agreement is void as the casino operator was not allowed to offer its services here, because of this the player has the full right to file for a claim to get a full refund of his/her net loss from the casino. This is all in line with Dutch legislation of course. Another argument is that 'illegal' casino's are likely to fail in their duty of care which could have led to players getting duped for gambling too much or lose more money then they wanted. Especially some Curacao based casino brands are known for the lack of a responsible gaming policy for example.

The only problem is that in order to file for such claim the player needs to get his personal data and transaction list to proof there is a valid claim and inform the casino about this matter or bring the case to court.

Lets use this thread to discuss the problems players face and updates from the law firm that is currently in court with at least 4 cases.

Casino's who do not cooperate ( no refund, not responsive etc )

- Westcasino

- Brunocasino

- Playboom24

- Rouge casino

Did you file for a complaint at the KSA already?

This wont change their behavior but at least result in fines if they are still operating here.

For the first 2 casino's it might be worth to contact the law firm (depending on the amounts you want to claim back) the last 2 only if this is a serious amount of money which is worth the fight and wait as legal procedures take time.

I'm just going to repeat myself since you created this special thread on this topic:

Based on what I read here, I believe the Casino Guru's point of view is simply different compared to yours and some other players that joined the discussion. We have a main goal in Casino Guru and that's "recommending casinos that are fair towards players".

The main question is if the casino paid Dutch players that won there without writing them excuses about missing licenses and restricted countries. If the casino decided to accept Dutch players knowing that they shouldn't, but they also decided to pay in case they won, then the casino acted fairly.

I'd like to see a single Dutch player who won in those casinos returning the winnings to casino, claiming that the winnings weren't deserved since the player shouldn't play there.

The casinos never forced anyone to play there. If you decided to join them, it was clearly a choice that you made on your own.

Did you even read the articles about the KSA fining all those casino's who operating without a dutch liscense!?

And the reason why they are getting fines!?

Many casino brands did refund the players all there deposits.

The casino's without a liscense are targeting dutch players .. sending promotion emails, target them trough dutch affiliates websites etc even though they know this is not allowed.

The dutch player who play at foreign casinos are usually dutch players who have banned there self at the dutch casino's due to gambling problems. Then they get target by foreign casino's and there gambling addicition comes back.. and they deposit all their money. The casino's without a lisence know this! And still they keep continue target them.

What is fair about that!?

Of course, there's nothing fair about abusing vulnerable players who fight with their gambling addiction and they decided to self-exclude themselves from all available casinos in Netherlands.

I don't think the Curacao licensed casinos know about specific players who have gabling issues and they purposely try to lure them on their website, but it's clear that some % of the players who play there from Netherlands will be part of the vulnerable group.

Then I believe it would be fair to refund those players when they're able to prove that they excluded themselves from casinos in Netherlands.

Yes... and as far as I read complaints on forums and being touch with some players... they are gambling addicts.

Im glad you see what I mean.. and why its so important to warn dutch players. To keep themself safe and others. And hope that casino's will change ... block dutch IP etc if they do not have a liscense.

Cause the casino's now ... do know its illegal to act without a liscense . But keep doing it.. because ofcourse it makes lots of money... money of gamblingaddicts.

And why if you know its illegal ... continue it!?. That is why its important to report those casino's.

I understand the opinion of Casino Guru and I can imagine that because of this you would not take complaints into consideration regarding this matter.

As we all know casino's always win at the end of the day, for a gambler it is important to know when to stop and take the winnings.

The main question is if the casino paid Dutch players that won there without writing them excuses about missing licenses and restricted countries. If the casino decided to accept Dutch players knowing that they shouldn't, but they also decided to pay in case they won, then the casino acted fairly.

I agree but also disagree as the question is also how much did the casino earn from the Dutch market and what did they pay out to players.

If you search on the internet regarding the amount of fines the KSA has given to several casino operators you could state that the operators made some good profit on the market while operating illegally.

I'd like to see a single Dutch player who won in those casinos returning the winnings to casino, claiming that the winnings weren't deserved since the player shouldn't play there.

It is likely that the players did not do this but according to Dutch legislation if it suits the casino they could theoretically claim all these wins they paid out to a Dutch player back, if the casino would win is doubtful as according to the legislation the direct result of this would be first of all that every player that ever lost money should be reimbursed. And secondly the players were not aware of this matter until the Dutch Gambling Act become 'active' as of October 2021. From that moment on the Dutch Gambling Authority allowed online casino's to operate here in The Netherlands and is taking care that casinos that should not serve Dutch citizens don't do this (well almost then they are doing their best effort).

The casinos never forced anyone to play there. If you decided to join them, it was clearly a choice that you made on your own.

I do agree on this but many players (including myself for the record) played on several online casino's as they targeted Dutch citizens, offered iDeal which is a payment method only for The Netherlands and offered in many cases a Dutch Support service. And because of that a law firm is now defending several players as this should ve not been the case.

Not only the illegal operations is a reason for their lawsuit, also the casino's duty of care is lacking in many casino's and due to the illegal operation players could ve been exposed to harm due to an illegal casino operation too.

And I also agree on the post of @sabine1984 as several casino's do all they can to lure you into a casino despite being self-excluded as they see a market for themself to profit.

Yeah, I'm not going to dispute what you described here since it makes sense to me and definitely makes sense to the Dutch authorities. The thing is that it's not even that easy for casinos since more and more countries currently have their own legislation and law related to gambling and the laws are very different.

A few years ago, you only needed let's say the MGA license and you were fine. You didn't have to care about the specific nationality of your customers. Nowadays, you need to have a special treatment for Germans, Brits, Austrians, Italians, Dutch, Czech and many other players.

The large casinos know how to deal with it since they have a special compliance department for it, but the small ones usually don't care that much.

I believe we in Casino Guru are in a position where we respect the fact that some casinos took the risk, on the other hand, when players will try to claim their rights, we're not going be against it since it's understandable.

I just don't like the players who try to misuse this. They know exactly what they do, they deposit a lot of money, if they win, they keep it, if they lose, they instantly try to get the money back through the government and licensing operators. In that case, it means the player tries to play with no risk and that's what I don't agree with.

I know about players who constantly look for casinos that aren't licensed in their country, but they try to play there purposely so they can try to claim their loses back.

Well Westcasino finally getting fined. That is one of the list 🙂 hope bruno casino is next.

https://www.vegasslotsonline.com/news/2023/05/30/dutch-gambling-regulator-orders-unlicensed-maltese-operator-to-leave-market/

They do not some did it already

Wow, just realised that The Netherlands having a great regulation on online casino... unlike in Malaysia, our government banned it all LOL ⛔️⛔️⛔️

bad situation right

Update on these refund claims.

Playboom24 and Brunocasino refunded my deposits. After months of emailing.

Can you contact me by email? collyn-daamen@hotmail.com

Done

Playboom24 does not respond to emails, neither does Winstler Casino, it is ridiculous that all this can happen like that. They try to lure players while they know that they are not allowed to register those players or take money from the players because they do not have a license and many of the players have a gambling problem.