A Netherlands court has ruled that online gambling operators have no responsibility to refund a gambler’s losses, even if the operator lacks a Dutch license.

Last week, the Amsterdam District Court rejected an attempt by a Dutch gambler to recover over €178k he’d lost gambling online with Malta-licensed Unibet between June 2010 and January 2012. The gambler had argued that since online gambling has yet to be legalized by the Dutch government, his wagers were illegal and thus should be returned to him post-haste.

The Court recognized that while Unibet lacked a Dutch online license, it had utilized Dutch language promotions, offered customer service in Dutch, operated a .nl website that redirected to Unibet.com and used Dutch banks to process payments.

Unibet countered that the Netherlands had never allowed international operators to apply for online gambling licenses. Further, Unibet had received an official communication from the Kansspelautoriteit (Dutch Gaming Authority) saying Unibet.com had met the criteria by which the regulator decides not to take enforcement action against online operators.