THE HAGUE - The Dutch Gaming Authority (KSA) has handed out a record fine to a gambling company. Virtual Coin Gaming, a company in Curaçao, must pay no less than 600,000 euros due to violations of the Gambling Act.

Host gambling games for minors and target the offer specifically to Dutch young people? That is a deadly sin in the gambling world. And so the KSA handed out an unprecedented fine to the company, which is based in Curaçao, behind the sites futgalaxy.nl and nl.futgamer.com. It was possible to pay via iDeal and minors could also play games there.

The six-ton ​​fine consists of two parts. The company must submit half a million, an "involved private person" one hundred thousand euros.

MAJOR FINES

The KSA has recently handed out hefty fines, sometimes hundreds of thousands of euros. Partly for this reason, the amount of the fine doubled between 2018 and 2019. Companies that offered illegal gambling then had to jointly pay 3.5 million. How much that was in 2020 is not yet known.

The gambling watchdog is stepping up the fight against illegal online gambling firmly in the run-up to the opening of the online gambling market. That will happen this year. Initially, March 1 was mentioned as the date on which companies can apply for a license, but according to sources that may be April 1. In the autumn, the companies that are admitted may actually start offering online gambling games.

Companies that have not complied with the rules in recent years end up in a kind of penalty bench, where they have to wait two years before they are allowed to enter the Dutch market.