The Dutch gambling authority, Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), has fined NetX Betting Ltd with over half a million euros for breaching gambling regulations.
Totalling €675,000, the fine relates to the illegal offering of online gambling products without the necessary licence. NetX was previously the subject of another penalty payment relating to similar wrongdoings.
The investigation uncovered a number of websites through which the operator targeted Dutch customers, namely through the pferdwette.de and betbird.com websites. The base penalty was €600,000, with an additional charge being imposed for failure to comply with the cease order in a timely manner.
Michel Groothuizen, KSA’s Board Chairman, said: “Dutch players must be protected: that is why we are tackling illegal offers hard. We see that illegal providers often pay little attention to the player and do not comply with a duty of care.
“Here, for example, we saw the practice that players who are not active for a long time after creating an account are imposed a ‘fine’ by the provider. If they do not play for a certain time, an amount of €5 per month will be charged.
“Then a player is punished if he does not participate in the offered (illegal) games of chance. That, of course, goes beyond all sides of the stakes.”
NetX’s fine follows a recently imposed warning by the KSA on Winbet over the similar act of offering illegal games. In that case, Winbet is facing a charge of up to €840,000 if it doesn’t take action to cease its regulatory violations.