Dutch Gambling Authority’s Enforcement Strategy Boosted Image
A 2018 memo reveals that the Dutch Gambling Authority (Kansspelautoriteit) believed its political standing improved due to new prioritization criteria. The Authority observed positive outcomes from its updated policy and decided to continue enforcing regulations in the online gambling market using this new approach.
Recently released documents detail the Kansspelautoriteit’s enforcement actions against illegal online casinos and affiliates. These documents, similar to previous releases, include daily logs containing notes from the regulator regarding various cases.
The logs highlight enforcement actions against illegal bingo games organized via Facebook during the pandemic. The Kansspelautoriteit received numerous reports and subsequently took action.
The collaboration with Facebook is documented, showing that Facebook often removed reported groups within 24 hours. However, in some instances, the Kansspelautoriteit couldn’t confirm violations because its staff were denied access to the Facebook groups where the bingo games were potentially being organized.
Recommendation to Continue Current Course
Alongside the daily logs, the Kansspelautoriteit also released a September 2018 memo discussing the approach to illegal online gambling. In 2017, the Kansspelautoriteit revised its methods using new prioritization criteria. The memo addressed whether the Authority should continue with this policy.
The Board of Directors of the Kansspelautoriteit advised continuing the new approach. They emphasized that the importance of enforcement outweighed the risks to channeling players to legal offerings:
“The Board of Directors advises the new Board to continue the current path of online enforcement without reservation. The current Board weighs the importance of decisive enforcement more heavily than that of a potentially reduced channeling as a result of that enforcement.”
Continuing the new enforcement policy meant taking action against three to five online providers in the coming period.
A review of the Kansspelautoriteit’s sanction decisions reveals that eight sanction decisions were published against online casinos between September 2018 and October 2019. In all cases, the gambling companies were penalized for offering iDeal as a payment method after the introduction of the new prioritization criteria. Eight gambling companies were fined.
In the case of PokerStars, the violation of offering iDeal had already been resolved at the time of the memo. However, the fine was imposed because iDeal should no longer have been offered from 2017 onwards.
Positive Impact on the Kansspelautoriteit’s Image
According to the Board of Directors, changing the well-considered course set in 2017 would be unwise. The Kansspelautoriteit was already seeing the effects of the chosen approach. For example, the stock exchange in Sweden reacted to the fines imposed by the Kansspelautoriteit. Additionally, PokerStars decided to remove iDeal as a payment method, as indicated in the prioritization criteria.
Furthermore, the new enforcement policy would be beneficial for the Kansspelautoriteit’s image as an enforcement agency, according to the Board of Directors. The regulator’s actions had led to more positive opinions about the Kansspelautoriteit in the Dutch Parliament:
“Where the tenor in 2016 was very negative, it is now much more positive.”
The Kansspelautoriteit placed great importance on political confidence in the regulator, especially in the run-up to the introduction of the Remote Gambling Act. A reassessment of the policy would only be appropriate once there was more clarity about the implementation of the new online gambling law:
“A decisively acting Ksa will also strengthen the necessary confidence of parliament in the Ksa. Parliament wants to have that confidence before it entrusts the supervision of licensed online offerings to the Ksa.”
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