Dutch regulator de Kansspelautoriteit (KSA) has fined Kindred Group’s Unibet €400,000 (£331,616/$414,551) for breaking self-exclusion rules in the country.
An investigation by KSA found Kindred’s Unibet was allowing consumers registered with the Netherlands’ national self-exclusion scheme Cruks to gamble online. This took place between 22 November 2022 and 30 January 2023.
Consumers signed up to Cruks must not be allowed to gamble with licensed providers in the Netherlands. Unibet was licensed to operate online casino gaming and sports betting in the country in June 2022.
KSA was first made aware of the issue in July 2023 when a player informed the regulator he was able to create a Unibet account despite being registered with Cruks. He complained to Unibet over the issue but stated this was “not handled correctly”.
The regulator contacted Unibet in August 2023 to raise concerns over the apparent breach. In response, the operator admitted some players registered with Cruks were able to sign up to its site and gamble. Unibet put this down to it deviating from its usual registration process in the latter part of 2022.
Unibet admits more players impacted than first thought
Further information from Kindred in September and November of 2023 revealed more people were impacted by the issue than previously stated. Exact numbers were not stated.
KSA questioned why the registration process differed in late 2022. In response, Kindred said this was due to an increase in traffic to Unibet during the Fifa World Cup, which took place in November and December of 2022.
According to Kindred, this increase led to a higher number of error messages when consulting Cruks. To counteract this, Kindred allowed players with a citizen service number (BSN) who received an error message from Cruks to register without their BSN.
However, it soon became apparent that players registered with Cruks could also sign up with Unibet using this method. As such, Kindred halted this form of registration and switched back to its standard signup process.
After confirming it would draw up a full report on the case, KSA requested more information in March this year. Kindred responded by providing data on 15 customers who registered and logged in during the period while with Cruks.
KSA rules breach warrants a fine for Unibet
The operator said the breach was not worthy of a fine. Kindred argued it stopped the alternate registration process as soon as it became aware of the issue.
The operator also suggested Cruks was not functioning properly. It said registration without using a BSN number could lead to information from Cruks not being reliable. Kindred said it was not aware of this issue. Cruks has faced a number of issues since its launch alongside the regulated market in 2021, including numerous outages.
In addition, the operator said imposing a fine “would be contrary to general principles of good administration, in particular the principles of legality, legal certainty and proportionality”.
KSA disagreed. It said to carry out a Cruks check, the BSN number of a player must be compared with the register before they can sign up with an operator. This, it added, is made clear in the Dutch Betting and Gaming Act (Wok).
As such, KSA ruled Unibet had committed an offence and should be penalised. It settled on a €400,000 fine, which Kindred has now accepted and will not appeal.
“Gambling Stop is an important tool to combat gambling addiction and protect players from the undesirable effects of gambling,” KSA said. “It is therefore of great importance that providers carry out these checks meticulously. Failure to do so will result in a fine.”
Bitcoin gambling site faces weekly penalties
The ruling is the second out of KSA this week. The regulator also told Freebitco.in operator FBC BV it will face weekly penalty fees if it does not cease offering gambling without a local licence.
KSA said FBC has illegally been operating games of chance without a Dutch licence. Games of chance are also prohibited in the Netherlands.
The regulator has made several attempts to contact FBC to block site access to Dutch players. While FBC said it would take action, it is yet to do so, which has led to KSA losing patience and pushing ahead with the penalty route.
FBC was given four weeks from 15 November to halt operations, with this ‘benefit’ period expiring on 13 December. After this, KSA said the operator would face a weekly penalty payment.
This is set at €280,000 (£232,142/$290,157) per week, up to a maximum of €840,000.
