SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
The Dutch Gambling Authority, Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), has issued another reminder to operators on licensing duties, specifically around the topic of cashback.
In the latest series of updates from the KSA to Dutch licence holders, the authority stated that operators should stop providing cashback as a bonus.
Addressing Netherlands betting and gaming firms by letter, the gambling authority reminded licensees that “offering a bonus in this form is not permitted”, and operators which do so risk enforcement action.
“With cashback bonuses, players get back part of their losses,” the KSA explained. “This contributes to taking more risks and lowers the threshold to gamble. For example, by playing with higher bets or by playing more often.
“Bonuses are classified as advertising activity. According to the law, advertisements may not encourage immoderate gaming behaviour. In the opinion of the KSA, this is the case with cashback bonuses.”
Bonuses are tightly controlled under Dutch advertising requirements, which was implemented in tandem with licensing applications on 1 April, six months after the KOA Act came into force in October, re-regulating the Netherlands online sector.
Specifically, bonuses cannot be modified to incentivise a customer to play more on a particular game or market, and cannot be used as a tool for customer re-engagement.
In this case, cashback as bonuses violate the rules as, in the KSA’s view, the offerings serve to re-engage customers by giving back some of their losses on a sport or game.
