KSA: Fine of €734,000 Imposed for Breach of Duty of Care

The Dutch Gambling Authority (KSA) has for the first time imposed a fine of €734,000 on one of its licensees because the company failed to adequately protect young adults against excessive gambling and gambling addiction.

Gambling companies have a duty of care and must protect players as much as possible against excessive gambling and gambling addiction. According to the KSA, the provider in question has not sufficiently complied with this duty of care and will be fined for this.

The KSA started an investigation after signals about large losses suffered by young adults. In this investigation, a selection of 10 of the player files with the largest losses were examined at the provider, whereby violations were found in all files. These were young adult players (18 to 23 years old) who gambled away tens of thousands of euros in often a relatively short period of time.

Michel Groothuizen, chairman of the board of the KSA, said: “We have a licensed gambling market based on the idea that anyone who wants to gamble can do so safely. That is why providers have a duty of care towards their players and must respond adequately to excessive gaming. Major losses are an important signal of that. We have intensified our supervision of the online duty of care and we take tough action against violations such as those we find here, because we really do not want to see providers continue to fail in their duty of care, especially for vulnerable young players.”