Dutch gambling regulator Kansspelautoriteit (KSA) has fined Winning Poker Network €1.3 million (£1.1 million/$1.3 million) for unlicensed online poker operations in the country.
KSA reached the decision last month but only revealed the sanction yesterday (14 January). Winning Poker Network (WPN) is ruled to have breached Dutch law by operating online poker without the relevant licence.
According to the regulator, Dutch players could access and gamble online via the WPN-run Americascardroom.eu (ACR) website. The site features a range of poker games and tournaments, as well as various promotions for customers.
Detailing the case, KSA said it first flagged WPN in September 2022 for activity across both the ACR site and Winningpokernetwork.com. It found the ACR was accessible to players in the Netherlands despite the operator not holding a licence.
Players were able to create an account, deposit using a Dutch credit card and participate in online poker. KSA also flagged how several casino games were being offered on the same website. Online poker is legal in the Netherlands through licenced operators but there is an outright ban on online games of chance, which include slots.
KSA also noted that the ACR site listed several other websites available to players. These included Truepoker.eu (TP), Blackchippoker.eu (BCP) and Pokerking.com (PK), all of which are part of WPN.
Other poker websites available to Dutch players
The regulator followed up this initial investigation in November 2022, discovering the site was still accessible to Dutch players. However, a further probe in January 2023 found the site was no longer active in the Netherlands.
During the same January investigation, KSA officers also looked at the other sites highlighted on ACR, in particular the TP website. They discovered that the TP site was accessible in the Netherlands, offering online poker, sports betting and illegal casino games without a licence.
A follow-up investigation in February 2023 also found the BCP and PK sites to be active in the country. Both were running online poker and casino-based games of chance.
On the back of this, KSA sent a penalty payment notice to WPN in March 2023. However, the penalty was not paid and violations continued into April of the same year.
As a result, KSA has now landed on a €1.3 million fine for WPN. KSA said the fine was increased from the standard €600,000 for this type of offence due to “aggravating circumstance” for the case; namely repeat offending after several warnings.
“A penalty payment order is an effective way to quickly remove illegal offers,” KSA chairman Michel Groothuizen said. “However, these types of parties should not think that they will get off easy with this, so we are also imposing fines for the violation committed.
“With this we hit them where it really hurts, namely in their wallets.”