The court in The Hague rejected Gammix Limited’s request for a provisional provision against the record fine of the Gaming Authority. This is apparent from a ruling published on 1 May 2025. The hearing already took place on 27 February 2024, two days before the record fine of € 19,679,000 by the Gaming Authority.
Gammix asked the preliminary relief judge for a provisional provision, so that the collection of the fine would be suspended pending the outcome of the objection procedure. However, the judge saw no reason for this and rejected the request. The fine decision of the Gaming Authority was thus maintained.
According to Gammix, collection of the record fine would lead to acute payment problems, dismissed, and possibly bankruptcy. However, the preliminary relief judge did not see an urgent interest in this. According to the court, financial damage is in principle no reason for a provisional provision, unless there is an irreversible situation, according to the ruling.
Gammix handed financial data to substantiate its situation, but according to the court in The Hague, that information was incomplete, partly not explained, and, moreover, unclear because of the complicated business structure. The judge noted that Gammix has the option of making a payment arrangement with the Gaming Authority.
No obvious unlawful decision
In terms of content, Gammix stated that the decision of the Gaming Authority would be unlawful. For example, the company disputed that it focused on Dutch players and expressed the criticism of the research methods of the regulator. The preliminary relief judge did not go along with that.
According to the judge, the penalty decision showed that Dutch players could gamble at the illegal online casinos of Gammix without obstacles, and that no measures had been taken to block access from the Netherlands. The possibility for minors to create an account was also considered by the court as a relevant violation.
In addition, the court ruled that the Gaming Authority may use multiple enforcement instruments at the same time. The fact that Gammix had previously received an order subject to a penalty does not exclude the imposition of an administrative fine.
The preliminary relief judge emphasized that the objections that Gammix raised against the amount of the fine, including the use of data from SimilarWeb for sales estimates, could be assessed in the then current objection procedure.
Record fine
The fine of € 19,679,000 was published by the Gaming Authority on 29 February 2024. In the explanation of the Sanction Decree, the supervisor stated that Gammix Limited offered Gambles online in the Netherlands without a permit and did not meet the duty of care.
According to the Gaming Authority, the estimated sales that Gammix would have achieved from Dutch players in 2022 was more than € 302 million. Gammix indicated a few days after the publication of the Sanction Decree on the fine “in all possible ways”.
