The Dutch Gambling Authority (KSA) has imposed a penalty of up to €1.56m ($1.8m) on Savant Limitada for unlicensed gambling activity. The regulator determined that its sites, gxbet.com and instasino.com, are operating in the Netherlands without a licence.
In February, the regulator carried out its first checks on the sites, finding that it was possible to create an account using a Dutch IP address and deposit funds. Furthermore, the KSA carried out two additional checks later on.
According to the regulator’s estimates, the sites were accessed 13,340 times from the Netherlands. Based on this information, estimated GGR and the cost of a local licence, the KSA determined the penalty level.
The operator was given an opportunity to submit a defence, but it did not respond to the regulator’s communications. Unsurprisingly, many of these penalties prove difficult to impose due to jurisdictional issues and operator's intentional non-responsiveness.
Last week, the KSA also addressed BetCity and TOTO over violations of the ban on using role models in gambling advertising.
The breaches were identified during intensified supervision carried out by the KSA around the World Cup. In both cases, the operators used recognisable references to well-known professional footballers in their advertisements.
Following the intervention, the advertisements were removed immediately and no fine was issued.
In a separate development, Dutch State Secretary for Justice and Security Claudia van Bruggen has said she sees no need for an independent impact analysis of the government’s planned near-total ban on advertising for licensed online gambling.
While she acknowledged that illegal advertising is widespread on social media and other online channels, she maintains that this does not undermine the effectiveness of regulated advertising restrictions.
Limited exceptions to the planned advertising ban could include information on an operator’s own website and advertising alongside explicit search results for online gambling sites
