Court vs Casino: Player Wins €495,000 from SmokeAce After Account Ban Over Huge Win

Courts in Curaçao have delivered a high-profile ruling in favor of an ordinary gambler in a dispute with a gambling operator. On February 23, the court ordered Altacore N.V., the company behind the online casino SmokeAce, to pay a local player a massive sum - €495,454.

The story began in March 2024, when the user created an account on the platform. A month later, the site credited him with a modest no-deposit bonus of €110 with a 30× wagering requirement. The gambler successfully completed all the casino's requirements and on April 19 submitted three withdrawal requests of €1,000 each. However, he didn't stop there and continued spinning the slots.

The real jackpot came on the popular slot Gates of Olympus from Pragmatic Play. According to the player, this slot was not originally available for bonus play, meaning that at the moment of the huge win he was already playing with his own cleared funds rather than bonus money. When his balance exceeded €495,000, the SmokeAce administration suddenly hit the brakes: the account was banned and the funds were frozen. As justification, the operator cited a rule stating that the maximum profit from a bonus cannot exceed five times its value (in this case - €550).

Why the Court Destroyed the Casino's Arguments

During the proceedings, it turned out that the casino's user agreement was deeply flawed. The judge pointed out the complete lack of transparency in the rules: the terms could not even be downloaded, and checks through web archives showed that the operator had edited the rules retroactively.

SmokeAce lawyers also tried to argue that the player should have first withdrawn the small €550 maximum bonus profit, then redeposited it to continue playing. The court considered this logic completely unreasonable. Accusations of multi-accounting also failed: the casino tried to link the player to profiles on other platforms in the Altacore network, which did not violate the rules of SmokeAce itself.

Interesting detail: Realising the situation was turning serious, the owners apparently tried to act ahead of the consequences. Shortly after the verdict was announced, all projects of Altacore N.V. were urgently moved under a new company, Fortuna Games N.V. Notably, they are still serviced by the same trust fund, SMES Trust Fund. The lawyer representing the winning player believes this is simply an attempt to avoid paying the large court-ordered sum. He has already filed an official request with the Curaçao Gaming Authority to launch a full investigation into the operator's actions.