Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), the Dutch Gaming Authority, has announced the introduction of a new general fine policy, enforced from 1 January 2025.
The KSA noted that the policy provides “more guidelines for imposing fines” and “more clarity to gambling providers and other parties” under the authority’s supervision.
Published in the Government Gazette of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the policy will apply to all violations that the KSA supervises, covering specific violations determined by the country’s Remote Gambling Act and its Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (Prevention) Act (Wwft).
The new fine policy is split into five categories, each category with a basic fine amount.
Category one fine range is €0 to €500 with a basic fine of €500; category two fine range is €0 to €10,000 with a basic fine of €10,000; category three fine range is €0 to €200,000 with a basic fine of €100,000; category four fine range is €0 to €1m with a basic fine of €500,000; and category five fine range is €0 to €4m with a basic fine of €2m.
The KSA noted that fines in category five will only be imposed for Wwft violations. For non-Wwft violations in the highest category of category four, the authority has the option to further impose a turnover-related fine of 3% of the offender’s gross turnover to increase the fine’s effectiveness.
Offering transparency surrounding how fine categories are determined, the authority has provided a step-by-step breakdown of its violation evaluation process:
The Government Gazette reads: “For determining a fine for a violation of a provision classified in category I or II, only steps 1, 6 and 9 of the step-by-step plan apply. For determining a fine for a violation of a provision of the Wwft classified in category II, step 2 also applies.”
Michel Groothuizen, Chair of the board at the KSA, stated: “The KSA is becoming increasingly professional as an organisation. After the opening of the online market in 2021, we were given a new category of license holders. In 2022, we imposed a first fine on a license holder.
“We have now gained enough experience to arrive at a well-considered fine policy for both license holders and other parties. This creates clarity for the parties under our supervision and hopefully motivates them even more to avoid fines.”
