The Dutch Gaming Authority (KSA) has imposed a fine of €886,000 on 711, an online gambling operator, due to failure to comply with procedures to protect players from possible gambling-related harm.
The investigation into these 10 individuals who had accounts with 711 found that they had all committed violations of the Dutch Gaming Act during the period of 2022 and 26 June 2024.
The KSA has determined that, despite numerous signs indicating that many customers of 711 were engaged in excessive gambling, the operator has not taken appropriate action to monitor those individuals’ gambling patterns or to take action to prevent them from developing a gambling problem. Many times, their actions were contrary to their own internal responsible gambling policies.
Each of the accounts reviewed contained individuals with the largest gambling losses from October 2023 to March 2024. Investigators found that the operator had not completed its risk analysis on many of those accounts in a timely manner, nor had it complied with its own internal requiring additional scrutiny when players lose more than €2,500.
KSA chairman Michel Groothuizen said:
We have observed that not all providers implemented their duty of care equally well from the opening of the market. We have therefore conducted additional investigations, which are now resulting in various duty of care fines.
In many cases, players with significant gambling losses over short periods of time were identified during the investigation. For example, one player lost €27,000 in only 4 days. In this situation, the operator was unaware of the player’s financial position.
The KSA stated that it has amended its regulations to impose stricter requirements for responsible gambling as a result of this investigation. These new regulations will help to prevent such circumstances from occurring again.
