Netherlands streamlines fines for online gambling operators

Gaming regulators in the Netherlands are taking a more direct approach to slapping six-figure fines on unauthorized online gambling operators, despite the inherent difficulty of actually collecting these fines.

On Thursday, the Kansspelautoriteit (KSA) regulatory body announced that it was adopting a new policy towards illegal online gambling operators as of January 1, 2017. Up till now, the KSA’s policy was to issue a warning letter to gambling sites deemed to be serving the Dutch market without the KSA’s permission (aka all of them) and to refrain from issuing harsh financial penalties if the operator amended its evil ways.

But the KSA says this policy no longer applies, given its belief that the KSA has been sufficiently active in combating unauthorized sites that the rules are now self-evident. As a result, any sites found to be breaking these rules after New Year’s Eve will be “directly eligible for enforcement action.”

In July, the KSA injected some serious steroids into its enforcement penalties, boosting the maximum fine for illegal online gambling threefold to €150k, or as high as €820k or 10% of sales derived from Dutch punters for repeat offenders.