The Dutch state lottery misled players between 2000 and 2008 by exaggerating the likelihood of winning, the Supreme Court said on Friday.

The lottery should have warned players that it would use both sold and unsold tickets when making the draw, the court said.

‘This means the odds of winning were lower than consumers thought,’ the court said. ‘This is misleading.’

The case was taken to court by a foundation named Loterijverlies.nl which represents some 23,000 lottery players.

The foundation says the players are now ‘excellently’ placed to demand a refund on their tickets. Everyone who played the state lottery between January 1 2000 and 2008 can sign up for the next step, the foundation said