On March 10, the Joint Court of Justice of Aruba, Curaçao, Sint Maarten, and the BES islands decided that recognition of the Austrian judgments was not contrary to public order in Curaçao. Raging Rhino N.V., reported as the operator behind LuckyDays, argued that the Austrian rulings should not be recognized on the island. The company pointed to Curaçao civil law rules under which voluntary gambling losses generally cannot be recovered, except in cases such as fraud or deceit.
Court Rejects Public-Order Defense
The argument did not persuade the court. The judges found that recognition of the Austrian judgments did not conflict with fundamental principles of Curaçao public order.
Furthermore, the court made it clear that the case was not about questioning the correctness of the judgment delivered by the Austrian courts. Under Curaçao private international law, a foreign judgment may be recognized through local proceedings if the usual recognition tests are met. That includes jurisdiction, fair procedure, public order, and the absence of conflicting judgments.
How the Case Reached Curaçao
The dispute began after an Austrian player used an online casino operated by Raging Rhino in Austria. The player later went to court to recover the money he had paid after discovering that the casino did not hold the Austrian license required to offer gambling services in the country.
In January 2023, the court of first instance in Vienna ordered Raging Rhino to return €25,518.42 to the player together with €4,464.24 in procedural costs due to the nullity of the gambling agreements due to lack of the gambling license from Austria.
Raging Rhino appealed in Austria, but the Vienna appeal court rejected the challenge in March 2023 and ordered the company to pay a further €2,286.72 in costs.
Following that ruling, the plaintiff applied for the recognition of the Austrian decisions in Curaçao against the opposition from Raging Rhino. In the initial proceedings in Curaçao, the first-instance court decided in favor of the applicant. Now, the appeal court has affirmed that ruling.
Why the Ruling Carries Wider Legal Weight
This ruling does not mean that all foreign judgments against Curaçao operators will be recognized automatically. The same tests of recognition, like those of jurisdiction, procedural fairness, public policy, and conflict with other decisions, will apply to each individual case.
The significance of the decision is that Curaçao courts may still recognize foreign court rulings even when local gambling-law rules point in a different direction.
The court also left several legal questions open because they were not needed to decide the appeal. It did not have to determine whether Curaçao’s older civil-code articles on gambling debts apply to online gambling under the former offshore regime or the newer LOK framework.
Raging Rhino will have to pay the appeal costs incurred in Curaçao, which amounted to lawyer fees totaling Cg 7,500 and disbursements of Cg 402.89.
A Warning for the Market
Offshore licensing or local incorporation does not shield an operator from foreign judgments when the underlying dispute comes from another regulated market. The key risk is no longer only the original player claim. It is the chance that a foreign judgment can follow the operator back to Curaçao.
