Listen to this article:The Dutch gambling authority, the Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), has issued a €200,000 penalty payment order against an unlicensed bingo operator for running games illegally.
The order was issued to “Baco’s Zaalbingo”, an event held through live video streams on the organiser’s Facebook page. According to the KSA, the investigation into the case began in 2022 after the operator was previously warned about conducting unauthorised bingo activities.
Last year, the KSA issued Luxurybingods with a penalty for illegal bingo games, so this is not the first time the authorities have faced such an issue.
The organiser now faces the prospect of paying close to €200,000 if the illegal operations are not stopped immediately. Although the KSA made its decision in November, the announcement was only made public earlier this month, on 7 January.
According to the KSA, its supervisor observed live bingo games on the “Baco’s Zaalbingo” Facebook page in August and September 2024. Posts promoting additional bingo events were also discovered earlier that August, advertising games that were set for later that month.
The games in question, hosted on August 31 and September 1, charged €25 per ticket, with prizes shown throughout each game.
Under Dutch law, small-scale games of chance, such as bingo, can only be conducted by associations with at least three years of existence. Furthermore, legal bingo games are limited to a maximum prize of €400 per game, with total prizes not exceeding €1,550.
According to the KSA the organiser failed to meet the legal criteria. Investigations revealed that not only were the prizes far beyond the permitted limits but the games were also advertised in violation of regulations. The Netherlands enforces strict restrictions on gambling advertisements, with most forms outright banned.
Initially, the regulator contacted the organiser in March 2022 after discovering the violations of the law. However, a follow-up investigation in August 2024 found that bingo events were still being promoted and hosted on the same Facebook page.
As a result, the KSA has imposed a penalty payment of €196,875. The fine is made up of two parts: €13,125 for each bingo game hosted, with a maximum of €131,250, and €6,562 for each advertisement, with a maximum of €65,625.
The KSA explained that the action was necessary as there is a high likelihood of repeated violations. In a statement, the regulator said:
“This is partly because the organiser himself says in a video on Facebook that he organises a bingo every now and then. He was already formally reprimanded for this in 2022, but he continued despite this. The proceeds from this type of illegal bingo can run into tens of thousands of euros. That is why the KSA takes tough action against this.”
This is the second major regulatory decision announced by the KSA this month. On 6 January, the authority fined Alimaniere Sociedad De Responsabilidad Limitada for offering online casino games without a Dutch license.
The operator, licensed by Curacao eGaming, was hit with a €1 million fine for operating illegally and it is the second sanction issued to the company within two months. The first penalty was issued after the KSA found that Alimaniere was offering gambling on the site Time2spin.com.
Alimaniere was warned that it would have to pay up to €140,000 per violation up to a maximum of €420,000. While the KSA found that Time2spin.com was made inaccessible in the Netherlands, the company was found to still be offering gambling on Timetospin1.com.
Due to the repeated infractions, the KSA opted to impose a larger fine. The KSA also cited the lack of age verification on Alimaniere’s websites, the option to use autoplay, which is banned in the Netherlands, and the possibility of financial penalties for players who were inactive for extended periods.
As KSA chairman Michel Groothuizen explained,
“The Netherlands has a legal market to ensure that people who want to gamble can do so safely. With illegal providers, we often see that no account is taken of the prevention of risky gambling behaviour. For example, there was a lack of age verification, which also allowed minors to play, and inactivity costs were charged when someone did not use their account for a while. We, therefore, take tough action against these types of parties.”
We do not sell or share your information with anyone. You may unsubscribe at any time.
Latest
