Casino’s location is the jurisdiction
King’s Resort in Rozvadov, Czech Republic has scored its first legal victory in its lawsuit against Facebook before the actual legal proceedings even start. On its website, the casino announced that a Prague court has ruled that the Czech courts have jurisdiction in the case.
Facebook’s international headquarters are in Dublin and thus most European court cases in which it is involved are hammered out in Ireland (King’s Resort refers to Ireland as Facebook’s HQ, but the companywide headquarters are in California).
Tsoukernik is confident that the app/site is a scam
King’s Resort and its owner, Leon Tsoukernik, sued Facebook in April 2021 for 500 million Czech crowns, or $23.1m, for allowing a fake casino app to advertise on the social networking platform using photos of the Czech brick-and-mortar casino. Beyond the unlicensed use of his property’s image, Tsoukernik is confident that the app/site is a scam and people who deposit money with it could be harmed.
Facebook not monitoring ads
Tsoukernik told Czech newspaper Hospodářské noviny (HN) that according to Czech law, only companies specifically licensed for gambling are permitted to advertise gambling products and services.
“In other media, if we want to advertise, they require us to prove the license, trademarks for the logo, and the like,” Tsoukernik explained to HN. “Even two years ago, Facebook demanded it from us, so I don’t understand how they can release such fraudulent advertising.”
He added that he has asked Facebook multiple times to take the ads down, but has never received a response. The company did reply to questions from HN, but it gave generic, vanilla answers that never specifically addressed King’s Resort.
the ads did not include any references to problem gambling prevention
Tsoukernik also pointed out – and King’s Resort expanded on this slightly in its jurisdiction announcement – that the ads did not include any references to problem gambling prevention.
“All Czech casinos are obliged to include this notice in their advertising and on their homepages,” the casino wrote. “This is another indication that this is illegal gambling advertising.”
Home of the WSOPE
While any person or business should challenge the illegal use of their image, especially if it is by an entity that could be a scam, King’s Resort likely takes these things even more seriously because its stature in the gambling world has risen significantly in the past several years. Opened in 2003, King’s Resort hosted its first major poker tournament, a World Series of Poker Circuit event, in 2015.
It was in 2017, however, that it really made a splash, as it became the home of the World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE). The WSOPE had moved to different casinos for a number of years, but it appears that King’s Resort is now its permanent home, making it one of the most important venues in the poker world.
The casino is the home of the largest poker room in Europe, with over 160 tables.
This year’s WSOPE will run from November 19 to December 8. It is much smaller than the traditional WSOP in Las Vegas with just 15 events, but all of the tournaments come with guaranteed prize pools. In all, there are €11m ($12.9m) in guarantees at the World Series of Poker Europe this fall. The largest of them is €5m ($5.9m) for the €10,350 ($12,1720 Main Event.
