KSA issues unnamed operator with €734,000 fine for duty of care failings 

The Netherlands Gambling Authority (KSA) has issued an unnamed operator with a €734,000 (£628,326) fine over duty of care failings, although an injunction has prevented the licensee being named.

According to the regulator, the company in question failed to provide adequate protection for young people to shield them against excessive gambling and gambling addiction.

The KSA began an investigation into the company after significant losses from young adults were flagged to the regulator, with the results of the investigation published in March 2024.

During the investigation, files of the 10 players aged between 18 and 23 with the largest losses were selected for examination.

The players in question incurred their losses between 26 June 2022 and 27 March 2023. 

The KSA discovered the assessed players “gambled away tens of thousands of euros in often a relatively short period of time”.  

A KSA statement read: “Gambling companies have a duty of care and must protect players as much as possible against excessive gambling and gambling addiction.  

“According to the KSA, the provider in question has not sufficiently complied with this duty of care and will be fined for it.” 

Although the KSA would normally name the offending operator when handing out fines, the firm has in this case sought an interim injunction from Zeeland-West-Brabant District Court to prevent its name from being published.

After the KSA’s decision was reached on 23 January 2025, the operator requested the regulator refrain from disclosing the investigation details a week later on 31 January.

On 4 February, the regulator said it saw no reason to refrain from naming the operator and intended to publish as planned on 10 February. 

However, the operator proceeded to take its appeal to court on the grounds that publication of the details would have “far-reaching and irreversible consequences” for the business, and also claimed that the Netherlands’ Open Government Act provided an “inadequate legal basis” for publication of the investigation outcome.  

The operator further alleged that the violations in question occurred at a time when the KSA’s sanction criteria wasn’t outlined in the country’s gambling legislation and therefore the fine decision could not be upheld in court.

Potential reputational damage to the operator and the knock-on effect to its shareholders were also cited as reasons to delay publication of the penalty.

The judge ultimately ruled to grant the injunction, due to the pending decision on a potential appeal against the fine. The judge also noted the operator had since made improvements to its duty of care provisions, and that Dutch regulations had been updated since the failings took place.

As a result, the KSA is to reimburse the defendant €385 in court fees in addition to covering €1,814 worth of legal costs.

The regulator said it will name the company as soon as it is legally permitted to do so.

The KSA statement added: “The judge has ruled that the question of whether the fine was correctly imposed is too complicated to answer now.  

“Until the KSA has answered that question in the objection, the name of the may not actually be mentioned, as far as the judge is concerned.  

“If at a later point in the legal procedure it appears that this information may be made public, the KSA will immediately mention the name of the party.”

Michel Groothuizen, KSA chair, said: “We have a licensed gambling market based on the idea that anyone who wants to gamble can do so safely.  

“That is why have a duty of care towards their players and must respond adequately to excessive gaming. 

“Major losses are an important signal of that. We have intensified our supervision of the online duty of care and we take tough action against violations such as those we find here, because we really do not want to see continue to fail in their duty of care, especially for vulnerable young players.”