Chance of compensation gambling loss after gambling with Cruks registration

If you have registered with Cruks, casinos are not allowed to admit you. Were you able to gamble despite signing up? Then you may be able to recover your gambling losses from the casino. In this article we will give you more information about this.

Cruks?

If you are ready to stop gambling, you can register with the Central Register on Exclusion of Games of Chance (“Cruks”). This is the Dutch exclusion register for gambling. The register is managed by the Kansspelautoriteit.

During this stop period, casinos that have a Dutch license (both physical and online) may not give you access. This is stipulated in the Games of Chance Act (“Wok”). In this article, we limit ourselves to physical casinos, such as slot machine halls.

It happens that casinos let people in despite a Cruks registration. In doing so, under certain circumstances, these casinos are acting in violation of their duty of care. It is important that you have entered your personal information correctly in the register. This allows the casino to verify that you are registered. If, under those circumstances, you were let in anyway and gambled (and lost), you may be able to recover your gambling loss from the casino. The gambling loss consists of your deposit minus any withdrawn winnings.

Case Law

Varying outcomes

The (limited published) case law shows that whether courts award compensation for gambling losses depends on the circumstances of the case. Indeed, judgments with varying outcomes have been published.

Payment of gambling losses awarded

For example, a ruling by the District Court of North Holland shows that the casino must compensate the player for his gambling loss, because the player was admitted without the casino having done sufficient research into his identity and his registration in the register.

Noteworthy in this case is that the player misled the casino by identifying himself with a friend’s driver’s license. The court ruled that this is the casino’s responsibility, as it should be aware that it is precisely gambling addicts who act in this way in order to enter the casino.

Another case, heard by the Amsterdam District Court, involved a player who gained access to a casino despite his Cruks registration by showing an expired passport. The judge ruled that the casino acted unlawfully with respect to the player by failing to adequately verify his identity and registration in the Cruks register and that the gambling loss should be compensated to the player. The judge emphasized that the rules in the Wok and the Cruks register are intended to protect gambling addicts from the temptations and pitfalls associated with gambling in such gaming halls.

gambling loss rejected

Two other rulings show that these types of claims for compensation for gambling losses are rejected by the courts under certain circumstances.

This is evident from rulings by the District Court of Central Netherlands and the District Court of Amsterdam. Both cases dealt with largely similar circumstances, namely particularities in the listing of a date of birth on an identity card. What was going on here? The players’ exact date of birth is unknown because it was never registered in their country of birth. Therefore, the ID does not list days and months, only the year of birth. At the time, Cruks did not offer the possibility of recording such a special date of birth.

The players therefore wrote down a fictitious date of birth. The casino received no notification when the players identified themselves, were admitted and suffered gambling losses. The court ruled that the casino was not to blame for letting the players in with Cruks registration. It was due to the Cruks system that the casino was entitled to rely on. Compensation for the gambling loss was therefore rejected.

Conclusion

If you were able to enter an arcade despite a Cruks registration and suffered gambling losses there, under circumstances, those losses can be recovered from the casino. Do you have any questions about this? Please contact one of our  attorneys by email, phone or fill out the contact form for a free initial consultation.  We are happy to think along with you.