Dutch Gaming Authority Impose New Fines on Foreign Operators

Two gaming operators slapped with €310k in fines for offering their services to Dutch residents.

Netherlands have fined two more foreign gambling operators for illegal gambling activity as they continue the crackdown on gaming companies offering their services to the country’s residents.

The Kansspelautoriteit (Dutch Gaming Authority) has fined operators 7red.com and RoyaalCasino.com €130,000 each for the fresh attempts to target Dutch gamers in spite of the government’s stern warnings.

The fines were slapped to holding companies Redcorp SA and Bluemay Enterprises NV as their websites contained a Dutch version, advertising their services to gamblers in the Netherlands.

Even if the websites had switched to English versions following the initial warning from Kansspelautoriteit, they continued to offer special promotional offers to Dutch residents, which ultimately saw them receive hefty fines.

The two gaming websites were also promoted on Facebook and via television adverts until they were notified of the wrongdoing.

Another €50,000 fine was issued to Bluemay Enterprises, a trust company that was responsible for providing the two websites with a customer support platform.

Dutch Remote Gambling Bill Presented in July

Netherlands government has ambitious plans to fully regulate the online gaming market having presented the Dutch Remote Gambling Bill to the House of Representatives in July, although first gaming licensed are not expected to be issued before the second part of 2015.

As a result, the Dutch Gaming Authority has been working hard in an attempt to remove all rogue operators from the market before the new legislation comes into effect, as witnessed by their latest actions.

Kansspelautoriteit had fined Global Stars €100k some year ago before Mansion and ONISAC Ltd were issued €150k fines in the spring. The governing body has also struck quite a few deals with leading online banking companies in order to prevent Dutch gamers from funding their accounts at the unlicensed websites, with Mastercard, PaySquare, Dial XS, Currence and Mollie some of the payment processors complying with the latest directives.

Meanwhile in Belgium

At the same time, neighbouring Belgium has hinted at a new legislation that will allow the number of land-based casinos to increase to 11, which is hardly a visionary move given that there are currently nine of these establishments operating in the country.

However, this is likely to attract more online operators to the market, considering that the current law requires all online gaming operators to partner with a licensed brick and mortar casino.