Novomatic Forced to Pay Millions to Gambling Addict

For most gaming companies, protecting gambling addicts from accessing and/or abusing their products is a very important aspect of their business. Ethical gaming operators are pretty scrupulous when it comes to enforcing rules like self-exclusion but even the most scrupulous companies still run afoul of civil law when it comes to this end of their business.
That case was perfectly illustrated earlier this summer when an Austrian court ordered gaming giant Novomatic to pay €2.5 million ($2.87 million USD) to an admitted addict who lost millions on their slot machines. The ruling, which came down in early August, was only recently made known to the public.
According to a report on Digital Journal, the unidentified addict dropped €2.5 million over the course of 10 years at Novomatic-run casinos. Regional Court of Wiener Neustadt agreed with the Plaintiff’s argument that he was rendered “partially incapacitated” by his addiction. That, in the eyes of the court, meant that all of his bets were considered null and void.
Novomatic was forced to pay out €800,000 in a similar case back in 2014. There’s no indication that the larger amount paid in this case was related to the 2014 case.
While no company is happy to pay out a large sum like this to a disgruntled customer, the move must be especially bittersweet to Novomatic as they are quite active in working with researchers to help combat gambling addiction. Earlier this year they announced they were extending a research relationship with the University of Vienna to study, and help prevent, gambling addiction.