KSA flags issues with lottery operators featuring “online game elements”

The Kansspelautoriteit (KSA) has flagged a new issue with the country’s gambling industry. According to the watchdog, lottery operators in the Netherlands are increasingly featuring "online game elements" in their offer, potentially coloring around the lines of their license permits.

As a result, the KSA has undertaken an investigation to establish whether lottery operators are fulfilling their licensing conditions and whether breaches have been committed. Essentially, the KSA explained that it recognizes two types of games, i.e. "high and low risk" games.

Lottery products generally fall in the second category of "low risk" games whereas online casinos, such as slots and other games typically found in online casinos are considered "high risk" games.

This is why potentially blurring the lines between these two activities may have serious consequences for consumer safety and why the KSA needs to establish that violations of the license conditions have not already been committed.

The KSA insists that people who choose to play the "low risk" game profile must not be exposed to more addictive or dangerous forms of gambling. Therefore, people who end up participating in lottery games should not have contact with the higher-risk profile games, such as slots or casino table games.

The regulator’s statement warned that lottery players who are misled to play high-risk games could end up developing gambling addiction or suffer gambling-related harm. Therefore, the KSA felt it was obligated to step in and ensure that consumers are not unnecessarily exposed to dangerous gambling practices.

Lottery operators must therefore only stick to the sale of raffle tickets via the Internet as indicated by the existing country laws. The KSA has been busy of late, attempting to calibrate the gambling industry in the country.

Part of this has been its enforcement action against Gammix, ordering the company to cease and desist and withdraw from the Dutch market. The regulator has been looking into a number of proposed changes to the existing laws as well.

Authorities confirmed that they are looking into the possibility of regulating gambling advertisement in new ways that will make them less harmful to unintended audiences. The country is also looking into the highly-contentious issue that is loot boxes, which have been see-sawing between a "gambling" and "non-gambling status" and still prove a contentious issue for regulators, parents, and consumers.

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