KSA contacts 42 newspaper editors over “reprehensible” promotion of illegal gambling
Dutch regulator reveals findings from six-month investigation, as online news sites were promoting unlicensed operators and those specifically not linked to the country’s self-exclusion register
The Netherlands Gambling Authority (KSA) has contacted 42 editors of online news outlets that were found to have promoted illegal gambling, following a six-month investigation.
The Dutch regulator said it had discovered “many” news articles that encouraged consumers to engage with casinos not covered by Cruks, the Dutch self-exclusion register.
Initially launched in October 2021 after the regulated market went live, Cruks was updated in April 2023. Players on the Cruks register commit to a self-exclusion period of a minimum of six months, though it can be extended at the user’s request.
In reference to the news articles encouraging customers to play with operators not using the Cruks register, the KSA noted: “Active promotion aimed at this vulnerable target group is very harmful.”
The investigation focused on broader advertising, meaning it analysed direct links to illegal gambling sites and other promotional marketing materials.
The KSA has explained that during all conversations with the 42 editors contacted, it made clear that such articles were “reprehensible”.
At the request of the regulator, all direct links to the illegal sites in question were removed immediately, while all outlets involved received a letter from the KSA advising them on how to avoid similar violations in future.
The Dutch regulator has also called on players to consult the KSA’s guidelines to determine which operators are licensed and connected to Cruks.
The KSA added: “This research proves that players are sometimes seduced into illegal gambling and even playing without Cruks without realising it.
“The KSA therefore calls on players to always first consult Kansspelautoriteit.nl. This lists all licensed providers that are allowed to offer gambling in the Netherlands.
“Illegal providers do not have a licence and do not protect players against problematic gambling or gambling addiction.
“By checking this, players run less risk. The KSA focuses on player protection, in line with the mission ‘Safe gaming’.”
The latest development from the KSA comes just over a week after Teun Struycken, the Dutch minister for legal protection who oversees gambling, refused to rule out the prospect of tightening advertising regulations further.
However, the prospect of a full-scale advertising ban is not something that the KSA would support, as its chair Michel Groothuizen explained to EGR in February.
“I consider it the wrong way to forbid legal parties to make advertisements,” he remarked.
“We may limit that. We might put restrictions on it, we may ask conditions, but we do think as an authority we should give the legal operators the opportunity to show themselves and to enable new customers to find them.”