Share This Article
The Dutch Games of Chance Authority (Kansspelautoriteit, “KSA”) announced a revision of its enforcement strategy in combatting illegal online gambling.
This is an interesting update from my Dutch colleague Robin de Wit, I hope you will enjoy it.
* * *
Key change is that the KSA will no longer warn individual operators offering online gambling to Dutch players prior to actually taking enforcement measures. To date, the KSA issued warning letters to operators that meet one or more of the prioritization criteria (.nl website, Dutch language, advertisements) first, giving them the chance to modify their gambling operations and cease targeting the Dutch market. In case the warning was neglected, sanctions followed.
As from 1 January 2017, operators that fall under one or more of KSA’s prioritization criteria will no longer receive a warning: illegal online operators are immediately exposed to serious enforcement measures. Such measures may involve fines of up to EUR 820,000 or 10% of the operator’s turnover. The KSA declared that operators that do not meet one or more of the prioritization criteria, but do offer online gambling to Dutch players, are not exempted from enforcement measures either. The operator may be confronted with KSA’s enforcement powers particularly when public interests are at stake.
Reason for the revision in KSA’s enforcement policy is that KSA holds the opinion that by now, it should be generally known by operators that offering online gambling targeted to the Netherlands without a license is illegal.
Until 31 December 2016, operators have the opportunity to amend their current practice in a way that their gambling offer is no longer available to Dutch players and that they do no longer fall under the prioritization criteria. To that end, the KSA recommends operators to take care of an IP-country blockade or other measure that makes online gambling unavailable to Dutch players.
It is expected that the online gambling market in the Netherlands will be open as from early 2018.
