Even though the gambling industry is constantly bombarded with news concerning regulations, penalties, various punishments and other industry-related subjects, it looks like some companies are still going against the law.
What Happened This Time?
Namely, Dutch gambling regulators have punished one operator with a six-figure financial fine for providing local punters with its service without having a local license.
Before we continue with this topic, we just wanted to touch upon similar news that struck the industry a few days ago…
Once again, Kanssepelautoriteit was the main character in this story and has also punished another casino, only this time it was Casumo.
Who Are they Targeting Now?
This time, it’s Casino.com (to be more precise, it was Onisac Ltd. which operates this website) who was charged with a 450k Euro fine due to the fact that it was offering online games of chance to people who live in the Netherlands and by doing so, they immediately broke the law.
This forfeit was divided into two segments – the first 200k Euros was charged because they were offering these games without a permit and the other 200k Euros was imposed because they made a similar mistake six years ago.
Furthermore, the rest (50k Euros) was imposed because they were charging users huge administration costs.
These charges involve a 5% monthly administration fee in the event that consumers’ accounts weren’t active for more than three months.
These fees usually range between fifteen Euros and go up to five-hundred. KSA found this to be a major downside for users.
Penalties As An Effort To Change Things:
We previously mentioned what happened to Casumo, but it is worth mentioning that KSA is really doing everything that’s in their power to punish those who disrespect the rules in this industry.
Namely, in February this year, they announced brand-new penalties that would come into force on March 1 with a goal to decrease any form of illegal gambling activities within their borders.
Onisac Ltd plans on making an appeal, however, if we take into consideration how their complaint went, they cannot look forward to a different outcome.
Furthermore, Kansspelautoriteit confirms that Casino.com doesn’t provide Dutch consumers with its services anymore, however, this recidivism doesn’t bode well for Onisac’s ability to obtain a brand-new online gambling license under the Netherland’s liberalized market.
All those companies who are expecting to acquire new gambling licenses are going to have to wait until mid-2020 because the Dutch government stated that it won’t be issuing them this year for sure.
On the other hand, Onisac will probably have to wait for two more years as a result.
Source: “Dutch Regulator Fines Casino. com €450k For Online Gambling Antics” https://calvinayre.com/2019/04/09/business/netherlands-fines-casino-com-online-gambling-recidivism/. Calvin Ayre. April 10, 2019.
