Betsson’s Dutch entity Corona Ltd issued €300,000 fine

The Netherlands Gaming Authority, De Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), has issued a €300,000 fine, to Corona Ltd for offering gaming to customers in the country without the required local licence.

Corona, a subsidiary in the Betsson group and operator of the Oranje and Kroon online casino brands, has detailed that it is currently locked in internal deliberations and assessments, as the group judges whether to appeal the decision.

This follows moves made by the lower house of the Dutch parliament two years ago, which saw the approval of the Remote Gaming Bill, that has thus far not had the approval of the country’s Senate.

In June of this year, government officials stated that the coalition government in the Netherlands had an intention to resume the legislative process, and has pencilled in an initial aim of seeing the new regulation introduced by 2020.

In its media release, Betsson detailed that further entities that fall under its banner were also the subject of KSA investigations, however, the regulator established that there were no violations with regard to them and no fines were imposed.

Betsson AB acquired its Corona entity four years ago, “in anticipation of the re-regulation of the Dutch online gaming market,” which the groups details that was due, and it expected, to occur in 2015 “according to public information”.

Pontus Lindwall, CEO of Betsson AB, commented: “Betsson shares KSA’s ambition to achieve a high channelisation of customers into any future locally regulated environment in the Netherlands, and supports the Dutch Government’s ambition in moving forward with the legislative process.”

Last month Lindwall stated that “confidence is back in the business” when reporting the groups interim 2018 results, following his regaining of the leadership in September 2017 from Ulrik Bengtsson.

Set to implement a back on track plan the program has focus on the three strategic areas of optimising operational efficiencies, improving product output and enhancing growth within core markets.