KSA Busts Social Media Influencers Over Gambling Ads

In the latest enforcement action, the Kansspelautoriteit, the Dutch Gambling Authority, has named three social media influencers who have been deemed to have breached the country’s gambling rules by advertising products that are not certified under any current law.

Trio of Influencers Targeted in Latest KSA Crackdown on Illegal Gambling

Stiefunspeelt, Turcos, and Buurtwachtt are said to have posted content across social media platforms that promoted illegal gambling providers. The trio encouraged their followers to explore unlicensed gambling by visiting websites that are not currently licensed under KSA’s regime.

The influencers were given 48 hours to comply with a takedown request and asked to scrub all mentions of non-licensed gambling from their social media channels. All three influencers are said to have already engaged in such practices in the past, and now face up to EUR 25,000 per violation, and a maximum of EUR 75,000.

Influencer marketing has remained a source of illegal advertising not just in the Netherlands, but also elsewhere around the globe. In New Zealand, many influencers were fined over the same offenses – having promoted illegal gambling content that is not certified in the country.

The KSA is increasingly aware of the issue, seeing it as a way to harm the regulated market and consumers, while demanding a significant enforcement resource to stamp out the issue outright. The KSA is also increasing its social media monitoring capabilities, hoping to ensure that it can catch such practices much sooner and act accordingly.

At the same time, the regulator is also looking into how licensed operators are using influencer marketing to boost their own standing in the country. The Netherlands has very strict laws on advertising in general, not permitting celebrity partnerships, including social media influencers, to push gambling content – regulated or otherwise – to consumers.

Some jurisdictions are already seeking much harsher penalties on influencers, with Kazakhstan seeking to outright criminalize the activity of promoting illegal gambling.