Bayern: Reclaim of casino deposit fails

A man who had made a payment of 3000 Euro in an online casino requested the money back through his bank a short while later. However, the credit institute did not accept this request. Thus, this case ended in court in Munich. However, the judge did not accept the customer ‘s request. The latter claimed the deposit money back through the bank. The customer must therefore bear the costs.

In October of last year we had already reported about a judgement by the Court of Justice whereby we spoke about the issue, whether banks are liable for damages incurred through casino transfers. A few days ago, the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” (SZ) published an article about a court which had to decide whether the bank had to pay back a casino deposit of 3000 Euro. The judgement which was mentioned here was decided on by the district Court of Munich (Az. 173 C 10459/21) and it is meanwhile legally binding.

Man from Munich request a chargeback of 3000 Euro for deposit made

The player involved in this case had made a credit card payment of 3000 Euro at an online casino without a German licence. However, when the money was deducted from his account on the settlement day, the player from Munich requested the money back from his back through a charge back.

The reason given by the player: Contrary to his credit institution he did not know that he had participated in an illicit form of gambling. For this reason, he must not pay the amount of 3000 Euro, but the bank must be liable for the ensued damages. The bank disagreed and refused to refund the casino deposit.

Bank sues player in civil proceedings

The bank in turn sued the player and the latter was asked to pay the credit card bill. Civil proceedings were held a few days ago in front of the District Court of Munich. The judge did not accept the plea of the player but condemned him to pay the credit card bill. Meanwhile the amount including charges came up to 3452.73 Euro.

This means that the court accepted the bank’s argument. The latter could certify that it did not know that this was an illegal online gambling provider. Further to this, the bank also added that the player himself had authorised the transaction. Thus, he cannot revoke this confirmation in retrospect. Just two weeks ago we had reported that online casinos are fighting back player’s complaints.

Court: player was “aware and willing” when using his credit card

The responsible judge had pointed out in detail in her judgement, that the player was “aware and willing” when he used his credit card for activities in online casinos. He had also authorised the transactions himself. Besides this, the bank could not know that this was an illegal casino. The fact remains that all “gambling transactions” appear with a special code on bank statements. The judge concluded, that a bank is not obliged to “check out the legality of possible payments”. For this reason, the player now cannot request that the bank refunds the complete amount deposited.

Conclusion

The bank customer who had deposited the amount of 3000 Euro with a credit card in an illegal casino must now pay the amount himself and cannot request a refund from the bank afterwards. This was decided by the District Court of Munich during civil proceedings. Now the casino player from Munich must pay more than 3500 Euro in all. It is still unclear, whether the player involved in the case has lost the 3000 Euro he deposited or whether he had actually won even more money.

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