Key points:
- Winning Poker Network will receive a €1.3m ($1.3m) fine
- This is for allowing Dutch players to enter the site without a licence
- The fine is above the standard due to several aggravating factors
The Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), the Dutch Gambling Authority, has imposed a €1.3m fine on the Winning Poker Network (WPN).
Following an internal investigation, the KSA found that Dutch players could enter the Americas Cardroom website and place wagers, despite the provider not having the necessary licences.
The KSA reached out to WPN and informed the operator, which resulted in several of the other websites being closed off from the jurisdiction. However, not all of them were removed.
As a second step, the KSA imposed an order subject to penalty to demand all offers on the site be stopped.
Michel Groothuizen, KSA Chair, said: “An order subject to a penalty is an effective way to get illegal offers off the air, often quickly. However, these kinds of parties should not think that they can get off easy with this, so we also impose fines for the violation committed. This will hit them where it really hurts, namely in the wallet.”
Good to know: WPN operates several websites which are illegal in the Netherlands due to improper licensing, including True Poker and Americas Cardroom, which attract around one million users from the Netherlands annually
In addition to allowing players to enter the site illegally, WPN also committed several aggravating factors, such as charging inactivity costs, allowing autoplay, lack of age verification and “pretending to be a reliable party by fencing with a foreign license”.
As part of its Supervisory Agenda 2025, the KSA stressed the importance of not only finding out how online casinos are still allowing underage players to sign up at the sites, but also what kind of marketing they're using to attract them in the first place.
