Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), the Dutch Gaming Authority, has issued a fine of €1.275m to Winning Poker Network (WPN) for allowing Dutch players to play on its websites without the necessary licence.
In a statement, the KSA noted that players in the Netherlands could access WPN’s americascardroom website and gamble illegally. The authority then informed WPN that it intended to impose a penalty payment order and block access to the website.
The authority’s statement said that WPN owns several websites, including truepoker, which are illegal in the Netherlands. The KSA stated that this website remained available to Dutch people, so it still imposed a penalty payment and said it would stop all WPN sites.
Alongside the penalty payment, the KSA also said that sanctions can be imposed for the length of time in which the illegal offer was available, which it says is also the case here.
Through its investigation, the KSA stated that it found eight violations of aggravating circumstances by WPN, including the offering of prohibited games; inactivity fees; incorrect notification about permits; conditions of prices; autoplay; lack of information on addiction prevention; lack of age verification; and unauthorised payment method.
As such, the authority increased the basic fine of €600,000 by an additional €675,000, bringing the overall total fine for WPN to €1.275m.
The authority stated: “The imposed fine was increased due to so-called aggravating circumstances: practices that aggravate the seriousness of the offence. For example, WPN charged players extra costs if they had not logged in for a long time (inactivity costs) and pretended to be a reliable party by brandishing a foreign licence.
“The KSA takes this type of consumer fraud very seriously.”
Michel Groothuizen, Chair of the KSA, commented: “A penalty payment order is an effective way to quickly remove illegal offers.
“However, these types of parties should not think that they will get off easy with this, so we are also imposing fines for the violation committed. With this, we hit them where it really hurts, namely in their wallets.”
