Will Hill, the United Kingdom gambling operator has plenty of businesses around the world, and this includes the Netherlands. The William Hill business in the Netherlands is facing a fine of 300,000 Euros. The KSA (The Netherlands Gambling Authority) fined the gambling operators for targeting players from the country without having an iGaming license.
The Netherlands Authority (KSA) Penalizes Will Hill
The regulator in the Netherlands applied a penalty on the UK-based bookmaker, William Hill. The basis of this penalty is that the bookmaker has been offering games of chance and casinos games to Dutch players through its William Hill website, as well as two mobile apps. According to the current laws of the Netherlands, online casino gambling is prohibited, with a proposal of a bill that will re-regulate the market getting stalled by the country’s legislature. Consumers in the Netherlands have always had access to foreign bookmakers and online casinos, but the case of Will Hill, it is a different story.
On the ruling of the KSA, Dutch players can translate the William Hill website into Dutch, as well as use the iDEAL internet banking option so they can process their withdrawals and deposits. iDEAL is the most commonly used internet banking solution in the Netherlands, and it is only available for those who have a bank account in the Netherlands.
William Hill to Appeal against the KSA Fine
A spokesperson representing Will Hill stated that the bookmaker is undoubtedly going to appeal against the KSA fine in the Netherlands. The spokesperson also added that many other gambling companies went through the same problem and they are appealing against the punishments.
Rene Jansen, who is the Chairman of the Executive Board of the KSA, stated that the fines represent the organization’s effort to protect the people of the Netherlands from the unregulated gambling activities. He added that the players who place bets on the website of any illegal provider does so without any form of protection, and this is because there is no supervision at all. Therefore, there is no way that the Netherlands can ensure that these companies are conducting their business in a fair environment, and this is why the KSA takes such actions against these illegal providers. He added that protection the players is the critical objective of the authority, as well as preventing gambling addictions and combating all forms of illegalities.
Other Penalties by the KSA on Gambling Providers
The KSA fined MRG with a 312,500 Euros fine, for failing to block the players from the Netherlands from accessing its gambling platforms. Another company that felt the wrath of the KSA was the subsidiary of Betsson Group, Corona Limited, which received a fine of 300,000 Euros for operating in the Netherlands without a license, which is a penalty that Corona has appealed against recently.
The fines are just a part of a broader effort by the regulating authority and the government as they try to clamp down on all illegal forms of gambling. There is also a plan that made its way to the light last September that proposes that all gambling operators that get penalties for unlawfully targeting their services to the Dutch players to become initially ineligible to offer their services once the country legalizes online gambling.
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