Online gambling operator 888 Holdings has announced that it will be returning to court in hopes of overturning an earlier ruling that prohibits it from offering its services to players in the southern German state of Baden-Wurttemberg.
London-listed 888 Holdings is responsible for numerous online casino, poker and sportsbetting sites such as 888poker.com as well as the WinkBingo.com bingo domain and revealed that it has filed its latest appeal with the German Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe.
888 Holdings is licensed by regulators in the United Kingdom, Gibraltar, Italy, Denmark, Spain, Romania and Spain but was told by the lower German Federal Administrative Court in October that its local subsidiary could not operate in Baden-Wurttemberg because it did not hold a state license.
The online gambling giant had previously warned that last autumn’s ruling meant that it may have to exit the German market completely but it now wants to take another run at the issue in front of the nation’s highest court. In a Monday statement, 888 Holdings detailed that it plans to argue that the earlier decision violates Article 56 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union by placing restrictions on its ability to offer goods and services across every one of the bloc’s 28 member states.
“After consulting with legal counsel, the group’s subsidiary has filed a constitutional complaint with the German Federal Constitutional Court in which it has asserted its position that the ruling of the German Federal Administrative Court infringes its constitutional rights as well as its rights under European Union law including the freedom to provide services and hence should be reversed,” read the statement from Gibraltar-headquartered 888 Holdings.