KSA chair admits he is “irritated” by process to remove illegal sites

Michel Groothuizen has issued his first blog post as chair of the Netherlands Gambling Authority (KSA) and shed light on some of his frustrations at the state of the Dutch market.

Groothuizen, who succeeded René Jansen when his reign officially began on 1 July, admitted in a blog post it has been a while since he last worked closely with the Dutch gambling market, dating back to his time as a lawyer while working on a case in 2015.

There has been significant change within the Netherlands government in recent weeks as the nation’s right-wing coalition has finally taken shape, eight months after the actual election last November.

It was a subject Groothuizen addressed, dubbing it a “special cabinet”, though he stopped short of tackling the recent tax hike to 37.8%.

However, upon his return to the sector, he has discovered some concerns, including the black market, something Groothuizen declared “must be tackled firmly”.

He outlined that while those around him at the KSA are in agreement and often discuss ways in which illegal operators can be halted, he is shocked at how hamstrung the regulator currently is.

“The fact that the KSA as a supervisory authority is not able to take down websites of illegal providers itself but has to call on hosting providers to do so, has really surprised and irritated me,” the regulator’s chair declared. “This would make our supervision much more effective.”

“That will therefore be an important point of discussion for me during the evaluation of the KOA [Remote Gambling Act] law later this year. 

“A total ban on advertising for illegal offers, regardless of whether they are available to Dutch players, is also an important part of this in my opinion and I will also strongly advocate this with the new state secretary, Teun Struycken.”

The aforementioned KOA has been the subject of scrutiny from the new government that have appointed Struycken to oversee any changes. Following one review into the KOA in June, all licensed Dutch operators must apply mandatory checks on monthly deposit limits of €350 for those over the age of 25 and €150 for players under 25 from October 1.

In his blog, Groothuizen outlined how seriously the regulator takes responsible gambling and shared examples of severe gambling harm that have resonated with him.

“What also strikes me is the dedication of our KSA team to the mission of ‘safe gaming’.

“When I took office, we announced to the world that after the summer we would be starting a new online duty of care department that, how could it be otherwise, will focus entirely on the implementation and compliance of the duty of care by online providers.

“The stories about players who suffer large losses have not escaped me either, our firm commitment is that with the terriers of this new department, we will simply no longer see these kinds of excesses in the very near future. The renewed safe gaming policy rule naturally plays an important role in this.”

Some of the KSA’s methods to implement safer gambling has sparked criticism in the past, including the use of “mystery shoppers”, a tactic deployed by the regulator where an agent pretends to be a customer and potentially uncover illegal operations.

In February of this year, Gammix Limited was handed a record-breaking €19.7m fine after mystery shoppers discovered Dutch customers were able to access online gambling activity despite the fact the operator did not hold a licence to do so in the Netherlands. 

Gammix claimed the mystery shopper element of the investigation was an unjust basis for such a severe punishment.

His sentiment in the blog echoes the one shared during his address at an industry event earlier this month, where Groothuizen explained how he is looking to follow in the footsteps of his predecessor and prioritise the safety of Dutch gamblers, while taking severe action against unlicensed operators.

“Today, as befits a good regulator, I will do no differently,” he added. “I would be happy to discuss with you how the authority will further scale up its supervision of the online duty of care in the coming year, and how we have already made an initial foray into this with the new policy rule.

“Of course, I also see the threat of the increasing number of laws and regulations, and the impact on channelisation, so the market for illegal gambling will also be considered.”

During that address, the new KSA chair labelled illegal operators “pirates” of the industry.