Ksa fines Gammix Limited over €19.6m for operating without a licence
The fine is the largest to be handed out by the Ksa to date, almost rivaling the Gambling Commission in the UK. Gammix has, however, responded by branding the fine an "absolute joke."
The Dutch gaming authority, Kansspelautoriteit (Ksa), has fined Gammix Limited almost €19.7m ($21.3m) for offering online games without a licence. The fine follows previous penalties placed against the company, including a fine of €1.47m per week for unlicensed operations back in 2022.
Gammix has responded to the fine in strong fashion; read more on that below.
Gammix sites, including betoriginal.com, cashimashi.com, goslot.com and nordslot.com, have offered ‘illegal online games of chance’ to players in the Netherlands, according to the Ksa. Previously, unlicensed operations by nordslot.com and another Gammix site, rantcasino.com, were fined incremental penalties, with the Ksa collecting a €4m fine at the start of 2023.
Now, this fine of €19.7m is the highest in the Ksa’s history.
The fine accounted for the amount generated by Gammix from Dutch players, as well as other faults including a lack of age verification and use of autoplay functionality. On the fine, Ksa Chairman René Jansen said: “Dutch players must be protected: that is why we are cracking down on illegal offers. We see that illegal providers often pay little attention to the player and do not adhere to a duty of care.
“We also see this with this provider: for example, there was no clear age verification. That is hugely harmful. That is why we will continue to take punitive action, even if providers repeatedly make mistakes.”
Recently, the Ksa released its 2024 agenda, with duty of care and addiction prevention, combating illegal online offerings and ensuring data delivery compliance being some of the key points for the authority to uphold its ‘Safe Play’ agenda.
The Ksa also reported on match-fixing trends in 2023 this week, stating that reports of suspicious sports competitions to the Sports Betting Intelligence Unit (SBIU) were down 85% – though highlighted that this does not confirm a reduction in match-fixing and instead may be an issue of operators being unaware of reporting procedure.
The Gammix response
This fine is an absolute joke, and we will contest this in every possible way, at every possible turn. We will only rest once this outrageous penalty has been rescinded and we have received the apology we deserve” – Phil Pearson
Phil Pearson, Director of Gammix Limited, has responded: “The KSA has imposed upon our company a penalty that is both outrageous and unsubstantiated. Now that we are able to talk openly about the case, we can confirm that we are fighting on all fronts as, to us, this is an extraordinary and unnecessarily heavy-handed action from a regulator that many already regarded as unapproachable.
“When we received the first notice of a possible penalty, we reached out to them to say we have blocks in place. We also asked for any information they had that was material to the investigation, to ensure we remained in compliance with all guidelines – a request they appeared to ignore. Our lawyers also approached the regulator, in writing, to gain more information, but again no response was forthcoming.
“We had enabled a block on Cloudflare for any Dutch IP, we have no Dutch language or direct Dutch payment methods, and categorically do not target Dutch traffic. If affiliates list any of our brands on Dutch-facing sites, we cannot be held responsible for those promotions. However, once players reached the end site, they would not be able to register an account.
“This fine is an absolute joke, and we will contest this in every possible way, at every possible turn. We will only rest once this outrageous penalty has been rescinded and we have received the apology we deserve.”
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