Apr19
More Votes To Ban on Online Gambling Ads in the Netherlands!
Dutch Gaming Regulator Issues €1.7m in Fines in 2018
January 3, 2019 Petar Mitrovic
The gaming regulator in The Netherlands issued a record high total of financial fines in 2018. However, as it turns out, collecting these penalties will be much more difficult that it seems.
The country’s regulatory body called, Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), announced that the total amount of financial penalties reached €1,709,800 in the last year! This is a new record high for the country. In comparison…
…the amount of financial fines in 2017 was “only” €1 million while it quadrupled from 2016.
Just to put things in perspective, the financial penalty total for 2018 in the UK exceeds £27 million. The UK Gambling Commission imposed all the fines.
No Surprise
This increase in fines is not at all surprising. A set of new strict rules was announced by KSA last year and they targeted those who didn’t do enough from preventing the people from entering their websites freely and gambled.
Five operators will suffer the biggest consequences in The Netherlands as they will pay a majority of the total amount mentioned earlier. These five brands include Mr Green, Bet-at-Home, Betsson, CybeRock/Honeydew and William Hill.
Long Process
As we have already said, collecting the money from fines will not be that easy and some of these operators are appealing these penalties. They based their case on the argument that the current gambling laws in The Netherlands is contradictory to the ones of the European Union.
Such laws restrict the trade between member states…
…but these appeals found no favor in Dutch course and the brands aren’t hoping for much.
The KSA is unwilling to specify how much money out of the total fine has managed to collect, but it appears they are still stuck at the starting point. The online operators which are fined by the regulatory body of this country have licenses in jurisdiction in which the KSA has no reach whatsoever.
Changes in The Organization
In October 2018, chairman and vice-chairman of the KSA decided to step down from their roles. The reason for such an action can be found in the fact that…
…Dutch regulators delayed the age of the Remote Gambling Bill that would allow the organization to issue online gambling licenses of its own. They deemed this delay as unnecessary and therefore, the KSA got the new leadership.
According to The Netherlands’ Senate, the meeting regarding the Remote Gambling Bill will take place on February 5th 2019. While this can be considered to be a good news, it is important to point out that…
…it has been nearly three years after the legislature’s lower house approved this bill and moved it to the Senate.
Provided there aren’t any objections forthcoming, the Senate will vote on the bill seven days after the meeting. The country will have another chance at allowing the KSA to offer its own licenses, which would be significant for the market in this country and even more for the operators who want to enter it and present their products.
Source:
“Dutch gambling regulator issues record €1.7m in fines in 2018”, Steven Stradbrooke, calvinayre.com, January 3, 2019.
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Hope they collect nothing. It is unfair to punish them without having things fixed in their own backyard first. The market in the Netherlands is a mess.