CLLB Rechtsanwälte gets money back – judgment of the Hanover Regional Court
München, 14.03.2023. The bottom line was that a player had lost around 25,500 euros in online gambling via the pokerstars.eu/de website. CLLB Rechtsanwälte has now recovered the money for him. In a judgment dated March 13, 2023, the Hanover Regional Court decided that the defendant operator of the website must reimburse the loss because it did not have the necessary license for its online gambling offering.
A comprehensive ban applied to online gambling such as casino games, online poker and online sports betting in Germany until July 1, 2021. However, the ban did not prevent numerous organizers of public games of chance on the Internet from making their offerings easily accessible to players in Germany via German-language websites. “Since they have violated the prohibition of the State Treaty on Gambling, they have no claim to the money. The players can therefore claim their losses back,” explains lawyer István Cocron, who has already recovered money from online casinos for numerous players.
In the present case, the client of CLLB Rechtsanwälte took part in online gambling via the German-language domain pokerstars.eu/de from 2014 to 2021 and lost a total of around EUR 25,500 in the process. The operator of the website had a license for Malta for its online gambling services, but not for Germany. The plaintiff had assumed that the online games of chance offered were legal and only found out later that they were prohibited. “We have therefore sued for repayment of the loss,” said Attorney Cocron.
The LG Hanover confirmed that the plaintiff was entitled to the repayment of his loss. Because the defendant violated § 4 para. 4 of the State Treaty on Gambling with its offer, according to which the brokering and organization of public games of chance on the Internet was prohibited during this period. The concluded contracts are therefore void and the defendant has no legal claim to the money, according to the court.
The ban from the State Treaty on Gambling serves to protect against gambling addiction and other risks. Even if the ban has been circumvented in many cases, this does not mean that violations do not have to be prosecuted. In the end, that would mean that the organizers of the prohibited games of chance could always continue their illegal offer, the Hanover Regional Court agreed with the case law of the Braunschweig Higher Regional Court. Even if the rules for online gambling were relaxed somewhat from July 1, 2021, this does not lead to the ban being lifted retrospectively.
Nor does the plaintiff’s claim for repayment stand in the way of the fact that he himself may have violated a prohibition by participating in online gambling. It was not apparent that he was aware of the ban on online gambling. The defendant did not state the opposite either, according to the Hanover Regional Court.
The court also made it clear that the plaintiff’s repayment claims for losses from the years before 2018 are not time-barred. The three-year limitation period only begins when the player knows that online gambling was prohibited and can claim back his loss. The court made it clear that he only gained this knowledge in 2021.
“The ban from the State Treaty on Gambling was relaxed somewhat on July 1, 2021. However, this does not apply retrospectively. In addition, the providers must have a valid license in Germany, which is still often not the case. Players therefore have a good chance recover their loss,” said Attorney Cocron.
More information: https://www.onlinecasino-geld-zurueck.de/
Press contact: Attorney István Cocron, CLLB Rechtsanwälte Cocron, Liebl, Leitz, Braun, Kainz, Sittner Partnerschaftsgesellschaft mbB, Liebigstr. 21, 80538 Munich, phone: 089 552 999 50, fax: 089 552 999 90; Email: cocron@cllb.de Web: www.cllb.de
