Red Rhino fails with legal appeal against GGL ruling – Legal

Malta-based Red Rhino was fined €50,000 (£43,687/$53,006) last month for offering online gambling without a license in Germany.

Red Rhino had withdrawn its German-language website Platincasino.de, but users were still able to play on Platincasino.com. The operator does not have a license in Germany and does not appear in the GGL’s White list of approved brands.

GGL said Red Rhino did not have a license to operate and was therefore violating national law. This led to the fine being imposed.

GGL also imposed a “large penalty” on the payment processor that acted in connection with Red Rhino. Details about this, including the identity of the payment specialist, were not disclosed.

Announcing its decision, GGL said at the time that the ruling was intended to signal that the company would continue to crack down on illegal activities. The regulator also said fines may be repeated or increased until unlicensed activities are stopped.

The Red Rhino Challenge focuses on payment providers

In the weeks following the ruling, Red Rhino decided to take legal action. The main issue was the use of the unnamed payment provider. Red Rhino complained about the decision to block use of the provider.

In its lawsuit, Red Rhino sought relief in the matter. However, the Higher Administrative Court of Saxony-Anhalt dismissed this complaint. The court ruled that this was not applicable because Red Rhino does not have a license to operate in Germany.

This is in line with the German State Treaty on Gambling. This gives the GGL the power to block payment services that are linked to unlicensed operators and websites (Section 2 Paragraph 1).

The court upheld the decision not to name the payment provider as this could impact how it deals with licensed operators.

At the end of the proceedings, the court ruled that the decision confirmed at the end of last week was legally binding.