The Netherlands’ gambling regulator the Kansspelautoriteit has taken action against an online gambling regulator and has issued a significant fine.
The Dutch regulator has handed out a €350,000 fine for the Curaçao-licensed company CyberRock Entertainment NV and the Cyprus-based operator Honeydew Trading Limited for their attempts to target their product at Dutch citizens, without having a license to operate in the Netherlands.
CyberRock Entertainment operates a number of online gaming platforms in a range of jurisdictions and through several different brands, and is the officially the sole shareholder in Honeydew, which is based in Nicosia, Cyprus. In recent years, many sites run by CyberRock and Honeydew have been criticised or even blacklisted by online casino review services, following a string of complaints from online players concerning unethical business practices and poor customer service.
Targeting Dutch players
According to the Kansspelautoriteit, the two companies had been using their various brands, particularly the Play2Win and Supreme Play casinos, to target Dutch online gamblers, despite the fact that providing remote gambling products is outlawed in the Netherlands.
This is not the first time that the Dutch regulator has issued severe fines in recent months. Malta-based operators Betsson and Mr Green have also been fined for offering unlicensed gambling. Betsson was fined €300,000 in August, and Mr Green received a €312,000 fine last month.
Speaking about the latest fine, the Chairman of Kansspelautoriteit’s Board of Directors, Rene Jansen, said that many people in the Netherlands are unaware that online gambling is illegal and as a result they are using unregulated sites, which puts them at risk of fraud. The use of these sites also makes it harder for the Dutch authorities to monitor and tackle problem gambling.
Legislative attempts to legalize online gambling are proceeding through Parliament, but there have been considerable delays, and the Remote Gambling Bill, which was passed in the summer of 2016 and is still being discussed in the Senate.
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