The Netherlands gambling regulator, de Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), has announced that it is issuing periodic penalty fines to the National Postcode Lottery and the Friends Lottery for offering unlicensed games of chance online.
According to the KSA statement, both entities will be fined €250,000 each week that the games are still available online up to maximum of €1 million.
A KSA investigation found that the National Postcode Lottery offers games such as Deal or no Deal, Suitcase hunt, ONE against 50 and Move That Truck on its website. Meanwhile The VriendenLoterij (Friends Lottery) offers a Games Lottery, where the FriendsLottery Millionaires, Club-man and Bingo Crush games can be played.
While bothe companies are licensed to offer lottery games, their licenses do not include online games of chance and therefore both are in breach of the The Remote Gambling Act (Wet Kansspelen op afstand, Koa) 2021.
The KSA has warned both license holders to cease offering these games with immediate effect.
This brings the total fines for 2023 to more than €59.2 million while the KSA’s fines make up almost €9.5 million of that figure. This could rise to €11 million if the maximum penalty is issued to both companies.
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