Rene Jansen KSA

KSA calls for 2023 improvements on data and duty-of-care standards 

Dutch licence holders have been warned that they must ensure all efforts to maintain ‘safe play and safe environments’ for consumers in 2023. 

The warning was delivered as the headline message of the Kansspelautoriteit’s (KSA), the Dutch Gambling Authority, 2023 Supervisory Agenda.

As regulatory supervisor, the KSA maintains the three principal objectives of its ‘2020-2024 Strategy’ to ‘protect and inform customers’, ‘prevent gambling addiction’ and ‘combat illegal gambling and criminal activities’.

Statutory tasks remain unchanged as KSA is charged under the KOA Act as the Dutch gambling market’s licensing body, enforcement officer and monitor of standards and conduct. 

Further duties related to preventing gambling addiction, see KSA manage CRUKS – the Central Registry System for Self-Exclusion.

In 2023 it aims to further progress the development of a ‘risk-based supervision’ of the KOA marketplace and its licensed businesses.

As such, KSA leadership has outlined five ‘supervisory priorities’ that it will “pay particular attention to” during 2023.

Leading the agenda, KSA has prioritised ‘monitoring duty of care’ as KOA licensees must ensure customer interventions “to prevent gambling addiction and/or suffering excessive financial harms”.

License holders were warned that KSA holds the right to launch direct investigations should it believe that duty-of-care procedures and controls are insufficient.

Operators must ensure duty-of-care compliance requirements, in which they must file customer reports on interventions with KSA’s Central Control Database (CDB).  

Safeguarding the KOA marketplace, KSA will prioritise ‘combatting illegal online offers’ as “the illegal supply of games of chance must be as small as possible.”

2023 will see the regulator continue to build up its technical enforcement measures to deny access to unlicensed operators by issuing direct IP blocks and limiting use of VPN connections to circumvent restrictions.

This follows success in 2022, which saw KSA expand its enforcement campaigns on unlicensed activities across affiliate domains, social media and hosting providers.

Tougher monitoring of unlicensed operators is required to ensure the market maintains its current channel rate “as 90% of the players play with legal providers. The focus of enforcement is on the illegal offer of games of chance that draws Dutch players away from legal providers”.

An additional 2023 priority sees the authority demand an improvement in “compliance with (changed) advertising rules in particular with regard to young people”.

The objective is required as Dutch gambling maintains its legislative agenda to adopt a ban on “untargeted advertising” across all media formats in 2023.

Operators have been warned that KSA will undertake a tougher monitoring of social media platforms, popular with youth audiences.

Advertising campaigns will be supervised by a ‘rapid intervention team’ charged with reporting on infringements of advertising laws with a particular focus on ensuring “compliance with the prohibition on role models and bonuses.”

“Legal providers must stop untargeted advertising and do everything they can to ensure that the advertising that is still allowed is in any case not aimed at minors and young adults.”

The final priority sees KSA target improved “compliance with data delivery” to help its supervision of Dutch gambling.   

The maintenance of CDB files is detailed as essential to KSA increasingly data-driven supervision. yet it is recognised that: “The delivery of near real time (gaming) information to the control database (CDB) is a complicated technical process that requires continuous attention and maintenance from both the license holder and KSA.

“KSA expects to take enforcement action a few times in 2023 to force a provider to provide the CDB with correct, timely and complete data.” 

 

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