KSA serves Winning Poker Network with cease and desist order

Winning Poker Network has become the latest iGaming operator to be targeted in the Netherlands. The news was shared by the country’s regulator, the Kansspelautoriteit, which offered further details as to what has prompted the latest enforcement action.

Winning Poker Network has been served with a cease-and-desist order by the authority, insisting that the company and its brands should wind down any activity that enables consumers to participate in unregulated games of chance.

The Kansspelautoriteit said that the cease-and-desist order was a follow-up on an investigation it conducted in September last year. It was then that the Kansspelautoriteit established that players from the Netherlands were able to access unregulated games of chance at one of Winning Poker Network’s websites.

Back then, the operator reportedly promised the regulator to cease its operations, but failed to do so, the Kansspelautoriteit insisted in its latest update. The regulator did check for confirmation. At first glance, the Kansspelautoriteit found no breaches, but upon attempting to create an account, the regulator said that it was still easy for a Netherlands-based person to register, and therefore participate in games of chance.

The Kansspelautoriteit has ordered the operator to comply. Should Winning Poker Network offer games of chance again, the watchdog would issue weekly penalties to the tune of €25,000 ($27,000) for up to three weeks or a total of €75,000 ($81,000). The Kansspelautoriteit will continue to conduct regular checks to ensure that the operator complies.

Winning Poker Network is not the only entity to have been targeted by the regulator in recent months. There have been many regulatory moves against companies recently. The Kansspelautoriteit has issued record fines, with one case totalling €26m ($27.8m at the time).

Companies have protested vehemently against some of the penalties that have been issued. N1 Interactive, one of the entities to be fined with a €9.87m fine, argued that the regulator’s accusations were "baseless" and that it would defend itself in court. The objection to the penalties has to do with the fact that the Kansspelautoriteit has gone to extreme lengths to "prove" that registration at prohibited sites is possible.

According to some of thepenalized companies, regulatory representatives would use VPNs and attempt to mask their locations to register. Last week, the Kansspelautoriteit handed down a €400,000 fine to Red Ridge.

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