Player sues casinos after 8 million Euro loss

Player sues casino for losses

Two years ago, reports surfaced regarding a bishop's son who lost approximately 8 million Euros in two online casinos and subsequently sued both for allowing him to gamble at their establishments. The case was based on the fact that the man had been diagnosed with a condition known as velo-cardio-facialt syndrome (which is linked with mental disability) and that casinos should have restricted his play based on his gambling patterns.

The basis for their case may have sounded like a long shot on behalf of his attorney in the beginning but the Norwegian Supreme Court found grounds for prosecution and ruled in favour of the young man allowing the prosecution of one of the casinos involved in Norway. The suit first involved Bet365 and Centrebet but will only proceed against Centrebet.

While the plaintiff has been convicted of fraud in a suit brought against him by the lenders whose money he lost, his lawyers argue that the casinos are at fault for his losses and had used aggressive marketing tactics, including huge bonus offers in periods of inactivity to ensure that he gambled again. They advocate that his huge losses and excessive playing patterns and history should have drawn attention and caused the casinos to lock his account on problem gambling grounds rather than encouraging him to play more.

The ruling for this rather unusual case was based on the precedent set in the Baasland-ruling which indicated that online gaming and betting service organisations that are based in countries outside the EU/EEA risk being sued by Norwegian clients in Norway, especially if their services are specifically adapted to the Norwegian Market (eg. Casino software, promotional and marketing materials, dedicated customer support etc. in Norwegian). In this case, Bjarte Baasland sued Centrebet after his gambling debt rose to over 10 million USD, claiming that the casino was responsible for his losses. It has been established that the Norwegian rules on territorial jurisdiction in international matters (where no international convention applies) determines that Norwegian courts only have jurisdiction in cases which have a "sufficient connection" to Norway and its citizens.

It will be of great interest to the online casino and betting industry to see how this case will play out and what the verdict will be. Will it be proved that the bishop's son has the mental capacity to defraud lenders and therefore knew exactly what he was doing when he lost 8 million or will the casinos be found to blame, opening up the possibility of many similar suits being brought against them by gambling addicts. Watch this space for more.