N1 Interactive fires back at Dutch regulator over €12.6m fine
Malta-headquartered operator “categorically disagrees” with the basis of “excessive” KSA fine and vows to appeal
N1 Interactive has strongly objected to the €12.6m (£11.21m) fine issued by the Netherlands Gambling Authority (KSA), arguing that the company had taken the necessary measures to prevent players from the Netherlands accessing its Bobcasino.com site.
The KSA announced N1’s fine alongside four other operators, Videoslots, Betpoint, Probe Investments and Fairload Limited, on 3 March.
The operators had been made aware of the punishments in December, with all concerned going to court to seek a delay to the publication of the fines. However, a judge ruled to reject the request.
In relation to N1’s financial penalty, the regulator stated that the operator had violated the country’s gambling law by offering services to Dutch players without the required licence from the KSA.
N1 retaliated, stating that it “categorically disagrees” with the regulator’s assessment and that it had taken the necessary measures to block Dutch players from accessing its site.
The fine of €12.6m is one of the largest fines ever issued by the KSA, with the likely reason being that this is a repeat violation by N1 after the operator was fined €500,000 in 2021 for a similar offence.
N1 is appealing the latest fine, and has issued a statement in response to the claims made by the regulator.
It reads: “At this stage, N1 strongly believes that the KSA’s actions have exerted pressure on N1’s current standing in both the administrative as well as judicial proceedings.
“N1 will bring forward evidence to appeal the fine and dispute its legitimacy and proportionality, which is excessive, taking into consideration other sanctions imposed by the KSA on other operators in the past.”
N1 isn’t the only operator disputing the size of its respective penalty issued by the KSA.
Videoslots has also challenged the €9.87m it has been ordered to pay. The operator lashed out at the regulator, calling the fine “absurd”.
Videoslots was fined for incorrectly displaying the KSA logo on its site without having a Dutch licence.
The KSA discovered this error after it undertook a ‘mystery shopper’ exercise by posing as a German customer and was able to sign up to the Videoslots site.
The operator accused the regulator of abusing the mystery shopper practice and confirmed it would be contesting the fine.
Ulle Skottling, deputy CEO at Videoslots, gave his scathing view on the situation: “It is absurd that the KSA should fine us after gaining unauthorised access. It is simply not possible to protect fully against unauthorised access, and the KSA has no guidelines on what measures are sufficient.
“Furthermore, there was no demonstrable damage, and the interests of Dutch consumers were never compromised at any point. The KSA calculated the fine based on several guesstimates. There is no basis for it, and all sense of proportionality is missing.”
Skottling concluded: “Videoslots takes its legal and regulatory obligations extremely seriously, but we dispute the KSA’s actions and conclusions, which we believe are unlawful. We are confident of a positive outcome in this case.”