Another Court Victory for Holland Casino

Dutch land-based monopolist, Holland Casino, is celebrating another victory in the legal battle against online casinos.

This time the court in Utrecht, Holland ruled that Peak Entertainment N.V (Curacao, Dutch Antilles ), Cassava Enterprises Ltd (Curacao, Dutch Antilles), Queen of Hearts N.V. (Curacao, Dutch Antilles), Internet Traffic Solutions (Hong Kong, China), Caribbean Casino Management Holdings Ltd. (St. John's, Antigua) and EH New Ventures Gaming Inc. (St. John's, Antigua) must stop offering their online gambling services to Dutch residents and to block access to their gambling sites starting Aug. 21, 2003.

In March 2003, Paramount and Universal Amusements, which operate Casino Lux, got the same verdict. Additionally, Dutch monopolist sports betting operator De Lotto turned to a lower court and got the same favorable ruling versus Ladbrokes, followed by the same rulings versus some 20 online sports betting operators.

None of the lawyers of the Internet-based casinos used the counterargument that Holland Casino has an official Web site in the German language under a German domain (www.hollandcasino.de/spielangebot/dashollandcasino.html), inviting German players to play in one of the 12 casinos in the Netherlands, Germany's northwestern neighbor. The soliciting of business in German markets is forbidden by Dutch law.

The Dutch law on games of chance, "Wet op de Kansspelen," states that Holland Casino should prevent excessive gambling, which is at daggers drawn with the strong promotion outside the Netherlands for Dutch casinos.