Austrian player wins 950k case against Bet-at-home
Country's high court orders Betclic Everest subsidiary to return sum to player - cities operator's lack of an Austrian licence.
An Austrian gambler has won a High Court appeal against bet-at-home which has seen the Betclic Everest subsidiary ordered to pay 950,000 (£764,000) to compensate for the player’s online roulette losses.
Maltese licensee bet-at-home, which has also been awarded licences in Italy and Schleswig-Holstein this year, is not licensed to offer roulette in Austria, where betting and gaming tax was introduced in January 2011, and Austrian newspaper Der Standard reports that this represented the reasoning for the court ruling.
Lawyer Christian Horwath, representing the unnamed player, described the decision as “groundbreaking” and said: “The Austrian law has been applied – this is essential and protects players very positively.”
The ruling is the latest blow to offshore operators taking bets from Austria, following a ruling last year from the Court of Justice of the European Union that lawmakers need not recognise bet-at-home’s Malta licence. This ruling, known as the Dickinger and Ãmer case after bet-at-home’s founders, was seen to preserve the monopoly of Casinos Austria provided the operator continued to meet the required standards on player protection among other criteria.
Casinos Austria has since secured an operating licence for its Win2day brand in Belgium, a jurisdiction in which bet-at-home is blacklisted.
Lawyers for bet-at-home have explained that they do not accept the ruling and are expected to contest it in due course. The operator has also contested its blacklisting in Belgium, with a ruling on that case expected later this year.