KSA Issues Record-Breaking Fine to Novatech over Unlicensed Gaming

The Dutch Gambling Authority (Kansspelautoriteit/KSA) has issued fines to two operators that provided gambling in breach of the law. One of these received a record-breaking fine, although the KSA chair argued that it should have been even higher.

Fortaprime and Novatech Find Themselves in Hot Water

In its announcement, the KSA said that it has issued fines to Fortaprime and Novatech, which were found guilty of offering gambling without a license. The former company operated the amonbet101.com, supraplay.com, amonbet.com, bilucky.com, gxspins.com, kaasino.com, hiddenjack.com, and luckymax7.com websites, while the latter operated Qbet.com and 55Bet.com.

All of the listed websites were available to Dutch players, despite the fact that none of the companies possessed a local license. During the investigation, KSA employees learned that players in the country could create new accounts, make deposits, and participate in the illegal gambling offer. To make matters worse, the websites seemed to lack age verification systems.

Additionally, the websites in question allowed players to gamble with crypto and other anonymous payment methods, potentially facilitating money laundering.

Per Dutch law, the KSA can choose a turnover-based fine if it considers the standard fines to be disproportionate to the revenue generated by the illegal operator. Since this was the case here, Fortaprime was handed a fine of EUR 1.75 million ($2 million), while Novatech was slammed with a record-breaking penalty of EUR 24.84 million ($28.9 million).

KSA Would Have Levied a Higher Fine If It Could

In its announcement, the KSA included a statement by Michel Groothuizen, chair of the regulatory body’s board. He said that even the turnover-based fine is limited by the law, which states that the penalty cannot exceed 10% of the company’s global turnover. However, Groothuizen believes that Novatech, in particular, deserved an even higher fine.  

Novatech earned hundreds of millions from its illegal offering, primarily from Dutch players. A fine of 24 million sounds impressive, but without the 10% maximum, the fine would have exceeded 100 million euros; an amount that would be more appropriate for this offense.

Michel Groothuizen, chair, KSA

In other news, the KSA just fined the increasingly popular prediction markets operator Polymarket for similar reasons, insisting that event contracts are still considered gambling in the Netherlands.