Grandfather opens lawsuit against Bingoal

A 77-year-old Dutch grandfather is suing Bingoal. The man is furious because his 17-year-old minor grandson would have lost 162,500 euros in two months to the gambling company without it intervening. In total, the boy lost half a million euros on no less than 18 different online casinos.

This lost money came from the grandfather’s savings account. The grandfather therefore files a complaint against the Bingoal gaming company, because he holds them jointly responsible. After all, that’s where his grandson lost the most money.

Intervene more quickly

Bingoal was one of the first online casinos where the minor grandson created an account using a copy of his father’s passport. The grandfather finds it unacceptable that despite a significant loss in a short time, they did nothing for months. And not only were there a lot of losses, but he also misused his father’s identity and his grandfather’s savings account. According to the man, the gaming company should have intervened much earlier.

The 77-year-old hired lawyer André Bussink for this trial and believes that Bingoal seriously breached its duty of care. He cites the article of law which states that an account must be suspended if there is reasonable suspicion that the player may harm himself or his loved ones due to excessive participation in or addiction to gambling.

Grandfather’s savings account

The grandfather is demanding restitution of the 162,500 euros lost from Bingoal as well as compensation. Her claim concerns the total amount her grandson lost from his savings account at eighteen online casinos in the Netherlands. This represents no less than half a million euros. He believes that this damage would never have occurred if Bingoal had intervened in time.

Accounts opened via copy of passport

The boy used a copy of his father’s passport to open accounts at online casinos. Obviously this should never have happened. His father managed his grandfather’s accounts, which allowed the boy to access his savings via PIN codes.

€17,500 lost on the first day

About a year ago, he lost 17,500 euros on his first day on Bingoal. An amount which even increased considerably in the following weeks. Its deposit limit at that time was even 30,000 euros per week, with a gaming window of 18 hours per day. This limit was created to help players manage their play time. This allows them to set a specific period of time that they can play before being automatically logged out or receiving warnings.

After eleven days, the boy received an email informing him that his gambling limits were very high and that they wanted to investigate his winnings. Almost two months later, the weekly limits were reduced twice (first to 15,000 euros and then to 7,500 euros) until the account was closed in July at the lawyer’s request. The grandson was already undergoing therapy for his gambling addiction at that time. No date has yet been set for the trial between Bingoal and the 77-year-old. There would now be good contact again between grandfather and grandson.

Legal duty of care

Both online and offline casinos have a duty of care. This means, among other things, that they need to know who comes to play often. If someone comes too often or spends too much money, the service provider must, at a minimum, report this to the player in question. A stoppage of play may be a possible measure.

Legal Protection Minister Weerwind wants personal contact to become obligatory if someone sets a deposit limit above 350 euros per month. The Ksa wants providers to be obliged to check whether a player can bear the risk if he deposits more than 700 euros into his player account.

Convicted twice by the Kansspelautoriteit (Ksa)

The Kansspelautoriteit (Ksa) has fined Bingoal twice in the past year. The online casino was initially fined 350,000 euros for not carrying out the mandatory Cruks check. A few months later, Bingoal was fined an additional 400,000 euros for sending bonus emails to young adults.

Bingoal’s response

Bingoal informed the NOS in his response that he himself had filed a complaint against the 17-year-old because there was identity fraud. He himself is a minor and was therefore not authorized to open an account in an online casino.

Bingoal’s response:
“Bingoal, as expected, reported this matter to the Kansspelautoriteit and the police last year. Since then, no further action has been taken by the supervisor and the police have opened an investigation. Given the complexity of the case, in which player accounts were created with several providers, and strong suspicions of identity theft, Bingoal cannot make further substantive statements at this time.”