Short answer. No. If the bet was a game of chance, you cannot go to court to collect your winnings. Article 2014 says no action can be maintained by the winner to collect what he has won in a game of chance. Strikingly, the law protects the loser instead: he may actually recover from the winner what he already paid.
What the law says
No action can be maintained by the winner for the collection of what he has won in a game of chance.
Civil Code, Article 2014 — No Recovery of Gambling Winnings. Read the full provision →
What the law says
But any loser in a game of chance may recover his loss from the winner, with legal interest from the time he paid the amount lost, and subsidiarily from the operator or manager of the gambling house.
Civil Code, Article 2014 — No Recovery of Gambling Winnings. Read the full provision →
The winner cannot sue to collect
The courts will not act as a collection agency for gambling winnings. Article 2014 states flatly: No action can be maintained by the winner for the collection of what he has won in a game of chance. A game of chance is one whose outcome depends on luck rather than skill. If your bet falls into that category and the loser refuses to pay, you have no legal case to force him to hand over the winnings. The debt is unenforceable in court from the winner's side, no matter how clearly you won or how firmly the loser agreed to the wager.
The law protects the loser, not the winner
The article does something many people find surprising: it turns the tables in favor of the loser. It provides that any loser in a game of chance may recover his loss from the winner, with legal interest from the time he paid the amount lost, and subsidiarily from the operator or manager of the gambling house. So a loser who has already paid can sue to get his money back, plus legal interest counted from when he paid. If he cannot recover from the winner, he may pursue the operator or manager of the gambling house next in line. The law's sympathy runs entirely toward the one who lost.
Why the law refuses to help the winner
This reflects a deliberate policy of discouraging gambling. Rather than lending the courts' authority to enforce wagers, the law leaves the winner empty-handed if the loser will not pay, and even lets a loser undo his loss. The aim is to remove the legal backing that would make gambling debts safe and collectible, thereby taking away part of the incentive to gamble. The winner's claim is not merely weak — it simply cannot be maintained at all, while the loser is given an affirmative right to reclaim what he parted with.
Games of chance versus other agreements
The rule is tied to a game of chance, so the nature of the wager matters. This article governs bets whose result turns on luck; it is not a general license to escape every kind of obligation. Legitimate contracts and lawful transactions are enforced under their own rules and are not swept away by Article 2014. The practical point is that if what you are owed rests on a game of chance, the court is closed to you as the winner — and the person who paid may even be entitled to claw the money back from you, with interest.