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Dutch Supreme Court rules against illegal gambling loss refunds
The Netherlands’ Supreme Court has ruled that players who have accumulated losses after gambling with illegal operators will not be eligible for automatic refunds.
The decision comes after the District Court of Amsterdam and the District Court of North Holland raised questions about the issue, with many players seeking to reclaim lost funds and arguing that bets placed with unlicensed operators were void. The Supreme Court shared on July 3, 2026, that gambling agreements with operators that didn’t have licenses before the country’s regulated market launch in 2021 wouldn’t be classified as invalid.
The Supreme Court ruling stated:
“It would have been logical, according to the Supreme Court, that if the legislature had intended such nullity, attention would have been paid to this in the text or legislative history of the Wok. This did not happen, not even with subsequent amendments to the Wok, such as the Remote Games of Chance Act in 2021, which made the online operation of games of chance with a license possible.”
Initially, the claims were brought up by 2 players who had lost $139,464 and $154,331, respectively, by placing bets on PokerStars and PartyCasino. Both had filed lawsuits asking the court to rule their contracts as void; however, judges reviewed Article 3:40 of the Dutch Civil Code and ruled that the absence of a license wasn’t enough to invalidate bets.
The decision of the Supreme Court is final, which means that other similar cases will begin using the same framework to make their rulings.
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