For years, providers have lured people with illegal gambling on the Internet. Law firms are now specializing in recovering lost money for injured parties.
If you are not particularly lucky, you usually lose a lot of money when gambling. Some people bet thousands of dollars in online sports betting or online casinos within a short period of time, further enticed by the presence of sports business giants.
The providers who collected this money did so for years without a license for Germany. And therefore illegal, as more and more courts nationwide decide. For the players, this means: There is money back. Often a lot of money. And with additional interest.
Law firms across the country have specialized in suing the organizers of the illegal game. The players who used to succumb to the advertising of the providers are courted by lawyers. Because even in the legal business, there is a lot of money at stake. The German Sports Betting Association, which brings together the most important providers, did not want to comment on the “complex procedures” because it was not involved in the processes.
Player gets back almost 440,000 euros
A player from Baden-Württemberg, for example, successfully sued the Tipico company before the Heilbronn district court and won the case in January, with the support of the Stuttgart lawyers’ portal Chargeback24 and HFS Rechtsanwälte from Ludwigsburg. The administrator had been betting on sporting events for years, initially only on football matches, later also on tennis and basketball matches. He didn’t even have to go to a sports betting shop for this, but placed the bets from his home computer or smartphone.
From April 2014 to October 2020, the 34-year-old man invested a small fortune – almost half a million euros. Most of the money came from an inheritance, as the lawyer portal reported. “Since I had a lot of money at my disposal all at once, it turned into addiction right away,” he is quoted as saying.
The profits could not keep up with the sums used. The player received a good 109,000 euros from Tipico. He then demanded exactly 377,431 euros and 58 cents back from the organizer of the illegal competition – and was right. In addition, Tipico has to reimburse him almost 60,000 euros in interest – and also bear the costs of the legal dispute.
The company had in vain referred to the fact that the online sports betting offer had been tolerated by the authorities. It was assumed that the organization of sports betting was allowed. Incidentally, the tipster played voluntarily and had a chance of winning.
However, the court pointed out that the defendant company “undisputedly” did not have the necessary license at the time the bets were placed. “Even a possible toleration by state authorities would not override the prohibition law and is therefore not significant,” said the judge. It also doesn’t matter if the offer was later legal through the granting of a license, “because it doesn’t heal the contracts concluded in the past.”
The massive advertising for his offers, for example with the former soccer goalkeeper and current Bayern Munich official Oliver Kahn, is now a disadvantage for Tipico. Also because of “the media presence, among other things with well-known personalities, the impression had to arise for an averagely informed and reasonable observer that the sports bets organized were in accordance with the legal system,” the Heilbronn court stated.
Chronicle of Licenses
In October 2020 there were nationwide licenses for online sports betting for the first time. An attempt in 2012 to issue licenses had failed. The providers had successfully defended themselves against a quantitative limitation of the permits.
Since July 2021 Online casinos can also acquire licenses for the entire German market. The first licenses were issued in April 2022.
On January 1, 2023 a new authority started operations in Halle, the Joint Gaming Authority of the Federal States (GGL). It issues the licenses and is intended to ensure that the rules, for example for player protection, are observed.
Schleswig-Holstein had previously taken a special path. It was the only federal state to legalize online gambling in 2011. This led to providers with a license in Schleswig-Holstein advertising their offers nationwide, which could also be reached beyond the state borders. pitch
It’s not always about that much money. The case decided in Heilbronn is the one with the highest sum of the already decided cases that Chargeback 24 has represented, for which there has been a judgment so far, says the founder of the portal, Florian Friedrich. On average, the clients would have lost a good 43,000 euros.
“Men, for the most part, actually believe they can win”
Since several hundred procedures are running or have already been decided in favor of the players, the companies are likely to have to face repayments in the double-digit million range. That’s not small, but in relation to the approximately nine billion euros in sales that the industry makes each year.
Men gambled away their money significantly more often than women. Sports betting in particular is a male domain, Friedrich observes, while the proportion of women playing casino games is around 20 percent. The motivation also differs: “Women are more likely to seek distraction from everyday problems or strokes of fate. The majority of men actually believe that they can win.” But that is a fallacy: “The odds are designed in such a way that in the end the provider almost always wins,” says Friedrich.
A judgment by the Frankfurt Higher Regional Court from April 2022 is considered groundbreaking. It had rejected the appeal of a Maltese operator of online casinos against a ruling by the Gießen Regional Court. The company had argued in vain that one could assume that the responsible German authorities would “actively tolerate the gambling offer”. The court rejected this argument in drastic terms. It is “at best a ‘de facto enforcement deficit’, because the numerous violations of prohibitions and the ‘skillful’ approach of the lawbreakers cannot be dealt with to the extent and completeness that might be desirable,” the judgment said.
Numerous law firms are courting players who have lost a lot of money playing online games without the provider companies having licenses. Some, like the Moenchengladbach lawyer Gerrit Hartung, report that they have already been involved in lawsuits relating to the emissions scandal and are now taking care of enforcing the claims of victims against online casinos. Chargeback spokeswoman Sandra Dambacher-Schopf reports that a law firm is added every day that is now also dealing with the subject – especially law firms that have already been successful with diesel lawsuits. “The wave of lawsuits in the emissions scandal is now ebbing away and many law firms are now trying to swim with the next one,” explains Dambacher-Schopf.
Experts call for advertising ban for sports betting
It is about the legal situation of the past. Sports betting licenses have been issued for two and a half years. Providers such as Tipico can now operate their services legally, but Bwin, Bet-at-home, Bet365, Tipwin and a number of others are also among the around 30 licensed companies. Such a regulation has also been in place for online casinos since mid-2021.
This has not improved the situation for gambling addicts. A broad alliance therefore came together at the start of the football league season last year to form the “Alliance against sports betting advertising”. Under the patronage of the federal government’s addiction commissioner, Burkhard Blienert (SPD), around 50 organizations and personalities are pushing for “the most extensive restriction of sports betting advertising”, as other European countries have already shown.
At a hearing in the Hessian state parliament two years ago, experts warned against reacting to the legalization with an advertising ban for gambling. “It worked for cigarettes. We would also like to see that in the gaming sector,” said Daniela Senger-Hoffmann from the Hessian State Office for Addiction Issues.
The 34-year-old, who got his stakes repaid in Heilbronn, also reports on his experience as a gambling addict: “I was at rock bottom when I had to restrict myself in everyday life because I ran out of money.” At least he has the money can bring it back – unlike those who still bet today.
