Dutch Regulator issues €26m in Penalties to Casino Operators
The dutch gambling authority Kansspelautoriteit (KSA) has issued record breaking fines to five online casino operators amounting to a total of 26 Million Euro. According to KSA, the fines were imposed for breaching the rules by offering online gambling to dutch players without being in possession of a local license.
Since 2021, operators need to obtain a license from the dutch gambling regulator KSA in order to be allowed to offer online gambling to dutch residents. According to iGamingBusiness, the penalties were already given to the operators in December 2022, but were not published until now.
The dutch regulator handed out the following fines:
- N1 Interactive – 12,600,000€
- Videoslots Ltd – 9,870,000€
- BetPoint Group – 1,787,000€
- Probe Investment – 1,128,000€
- Fairload – 900,000€
All of these operators were fined for the same reason: Allowing dutch players to sign up and play at the casino without permission from the KSA.
N1 Interactive received the record breaking fine of €12.6m for repeatedly violating the dutch law by accepting dutch customers without the license from the dutch regulator. Back in summer 2021, they got fined for 500,000€ for the same reason.
KSA chairman René Jansen said: „We mean business. Player safety is paramount. A fine is to hit where it hurts, so in the wallet. With such amounts, we think we can impose an appropriate sanction, given the illegal earnings“.
Videoslots receives 9.9 Million Euro penalty
Earlier this week Videoslots said that it will challenge the ruling, accusing the regulator of gaining access to the website by pretending to be a german customer. Videoslots said the KSA first tried to sign up as a dutch customer which failed due to the measures in placed by Videoslots. According to Videoslots, the KSA then pretended to be a german customer, managed to sign up and make a deposit and a single bet of 20 cents.
As soon as Videoslots became aware that the KSA official unlawfully accessed the casino, the operator said it immediately implemented further measures to prevent this from happening again.
According to the KSA, Videoslots breached the Dutch Gaming Act by giving players access to its casino. Videoslots confirmed that it will challenge the decision.
