The Kansspelautoriteit, the Dutch Gaming Authority, has issued a new €2m penalty to LCS Limited, the operator of sonsofslots dot com, a website that the watchdog alleges has catered to Dutch citizens on at least one occasion and offered them online games of chance without a license from the relevant authority, i.e the KSA.
This is the second instance when the KSA has gone after the company, citing a previous penalty worth €165,000 which was issued back in August 2022 to LCS Limited, along with a warning to cease and desist all activities that target Dutch customers, the regulator argues on its official website.
The case caught the attention of KSA Chairman René Jansen who said that financial penalties are an efficient way to curb illegal gambling. He also warned companies that they cannot expect to buy their way out of this, and that previous offenses and new ones will be scrutinized no matter what.
As Jansen confirmed, the regulator is continuously looking into operators and examining whether they have altered their ways and complied with previous enforcement actions. Jansen and the KSA reminded that the only way sonsofslots dot com could offer games locally is after it obtains the pertinent license from the KSA. All other operations are deemed illegal.
LCS Limited though joins a number of operators that are willing to argue against the KSA and what they consider to be an unfair ruling in the matter. The operator’s legal representative, Blenheim Advocaten, spoke to iGB, an industry publication, and explained that the first penalty referenced by the KSA was about a single incident and that immediate actions were taken at the time to rectify the situation.
He described the newly imposed fine as excessive and unjustified. Advocaten added that LCS was committed to meeting obligations under Dutch law and did so seriously but refused the grounds on which the €2m fine was awarded. The operator had taken actions to prevent Dutch customers from registering at the platform.
Advocaten and LCS join a choir of operators that have criticized regulators for using quasi-underhand practices themselves to register, play, and exploit "offshore" gambling platforms. For example, some regulators have gone so far as to use VPNs and submit fake information to set up accounts. While those accounts are usually caught in a matter of time, they may slip through on occasion.
In LCS’s case, the company is going to argue against the penalty and the regulator’s methodology in issuing it.
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