Dutch Officials Take Closer Look at Online Gambling
Dutch people like to gamble. Many residents of the Netherlands have found it easy to find lots of places to gamble the night away. Serving this market has been a huge source of revenue for some of the best known international gambling companies. Online gaming has been particularly popular here. It’s no wonder that international gaming companies have chosen to target this market. They’ve taken out adds and looked for ways to entice clients. This is because the international gaming market in the country has not been heavily regulated in any way. While this is the way the country has acted in the past, it’s clear that this form of gaming and this market may be changing drastically.
Regulators who govern the Dutch gaming industry are taking a very close look at online gaming in this part of the world. Dutch gaming officials are trying to determine what actions they can take in order to initiate a potentially serious investigation of this form of gambling. The Kansspelautoriteit is the organization in the Netherlands that is entrusted with deciding about what kind of regulations should be made official. In recent years, officials at this organization have been noticed for imposing fines on companies that provided gaming services to the Dutch without having official sanction from the state. This part of an effort to regulate online gaming in The Netherlands that goes back several years. One company, in particular, has drawn special ire from Dutch officials.
Mansion and Co-Gaming are two companies that are licensed for gaming in Malta. About four years ago, Dutch officials order the companies to pay large fines. Mansion was given a €150,000 fine while Co-Gaming was handed a €180,000 penalty. This is because the companies provided online games of chance in Dutch without permission from the organization. Officials at both companies chose to take the issue of fines up with The Hague, the governing body of European laws. In July of 2017, officials at The Hague ruled in favor of the Dutch regulatory body. After the court did so, the companies decided on an additional appeal. This was to the Council of State.
The Council of State has ruled that Dutch officials were right to impose such penalties and had the option to do so under existing Dutch laws. As result, officials at Mansion, the owner of both Mansion and Co-Gaming, has stated the company’s intent to close down operations to Dutch citizens going forward. Dutch customers will no longer be allowed on the sites. All existing accounts will now be closed starting in early October. People can choose to withdraw any earnings they have on file as well as any payments they’ve made to the customers. The fines and the decision to uphold them are no surprise to all those who watch this industry and how it has played out in The Netherlands. Officials here have chosen to fine other online gaming companies in the past. They are expected to continue to engage in such crackdowns.
