Gambling sites hindering lawsuits from gamblers claiming back pre-legalization losses

Unibet and Bwin are delaying lawsuits from gamblers who are claiming back gambling losses from the time when the online gambling companies were still operating illegally in the Netherlands. The gambling sites have stopped providing old transaction overviews, which can be used as evidence in the lawsuits, lawyer Benzi Loonstein confirmed after reporting by the Telegraaf. He is trying to reclaim the illegally obtained winnings on behalf of thousands of gamblers.

Since October 2021, casinos have been allowed to offer online gambling if they have a license to do so. Before that, mainly foreign online casinos allowed hundreds of thousands of Dutch people onto their platforms. Loonstein and the interest group Gokverliesterug are collecting people who lost money by gambling online during the illegal period. Judges have already made several rulings in favor of the affected gamblers, ordering online casinos to repay hundreds of thousands of euros.

According to Loonstein, Unibet started to delay the case against it in April last year. The Malta-based company which is also known in the Netherlands as a sponsor for many football clubs, claims it is unable to find the data on past transactions due to a change of company name, he said. The lawyer calls this nonsense and has started proceedings to force the provision of the information through the courts.

If necessary, he will do the same against Bwin, which has also reportedly stopped providing the data for several months.