Online poker players in the Netherlands are off the hook — at least, for the moment — after a court ruled that their winnings aren’t subject to local taxation.

In a judgment issued on December 31 but only released publicly on Monday, the Court of Appeals in Den Bosch ruled that the Dutch tax office (Belastingdienst) had no right to tax winnings earned by local gamblers who played on the Malta-licensed dot-eu site of The Stars Group’s flagship PokerStars brand.

The case, which dates back years, began when Belastingdienst claimed that Dutch poker players were required to pay 29% tax on their PokerStars winnings. Lawyer Pepjin le Heux, who represented around 100 players in the case, told Dutch media that some of the “big boys” caught up in this case were looking at a personal tax obligation of over €500k.

Under European Union rules, gambling winnings derived from EU member states are exempt from taxation, but Belastingdienst claimed that PokerStars’ parent company Rational Group was based on the Isle of Man, which lies outside the EU. Dutch players countered that the PokerStars.eu site on which they played was based in Malta and thus qualified for the exemption.