KSA slaps Gammix Ltd with €19.6M fine

The Dutch Gaming Authority or Kansspelautoriteit can be relentless as previous expeirence has shown. The latest saga involving the regulatory, arguably one of the toughest in Europe, sees Gammix Limited, a company that the watchdog has accused of offering games of chance in the Netherlands without a license, handed down an eye-watering €19,679,000.

The size of the penalty exceeds what the United Kingdom’s Gambling Commission has been putting out there for many years and has caused an immediate response from the operator which described it as "outrageous." This fine also comes atop a previous penalty from several months back when the KSA did not hesitate to slap the operator with €4.4m fine.

Both penalties are being contested by Gammix which has called into question the methodology used by the regulator, which often goes beyond just checking, and resorts to VPNs and other means to gain access even when this is not possible for the ordinary Dutch customer, the company notes.

In an official statement shared on the regulator’s website, the KSA goes on to outline the motivation behind the sizable penalty. According to the regulator, Gammix has been offering illegal gambling products through a host of its brands, to wit:

• Betoriginal.com
• Bluvegas.com
• Cashimashi.com
• Goslot.com
• Nordslot.com
• Vegadream.com
• Scatters.com

The regulator similarly argues that Gammix had not in fact undertaken "any measures" to prevent Dutch players’ access to these websites, and also specified that a previous penalty had already been allocated because of Gammix breaches related to rantcasino.com and nordslot.com.

A translated segment from the KSA’s website citing the outgoing regulatory chairman René Jansen reads:

"Dutch players must be protected: that is why we are cracking down on illegal offers. We see that illegal providers often pay little attention to the player and do not adhere to a duty of care. We also see this with this provider: there was no clear age verification. That is extremely harmful. We will therefore continue to take sanctions, even if providers repeatedly make mistakes."

Phil Pearson, director of Gammix Limited, has since described the fine as "outrageous and unsubstantiated," and further criticized the KSA and its methodology, arguing that the regulator has long earned itself a reputation for being "unapproachable."

The KSA maintains that Gammix’s Dutch turnover is €302.7m, which is a sizable sum if true, but there does not seem to be further detail about how the number was arrived at. Yet, the KSA has said that the fine is only around 7% of the company’s turnover in the jurisdiction, accounting for the numbers being accurate in the first place.

Pearson also noted that his company had tried to reach out to the KSA and get a clarification on what the regulator found was the cause behind the first penalty of €4.4m, which Gammix similarly contested. He said that there has been no feedback from the regulator, and confirmed that these penalties are heavy-handed and will be fought in court.

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