In the past six weeks, nearly 60 DMCA complaints have been lodged against the Kansspelautoriteit, alleging it copied content from various websites and requesting that the Kansspelwijzer pages be removed from Google‘s search results.
The DMCA was meant to provide publishers with protection from being copied by ensuring modern platforms like Google and Facebook review and take action upon receiving a complaint; however, the DMCA has become increasingly criticized due to the fact that it has been abused.
Abuse of the DMCA is not new. The Responsible Affiliates Seal of Approval previously issued a public letter urging Google to take action against false DMCA claims that were made against legal affiliates in the Netherlands.
Gambling expert Frank Kruit said:
This concerns a false claim. One of the stream of thousands filed daily against legal casino affiliates in the Netherlands. Often originating from the same quarter: illegal operators and/or affiliates who want to damage the legal market. An anonymous party files a DMCA request with Google on behalf of a ‘client’. Such a request can be submitted without any verification. Sometimes deindexation follows. The page disappears from the search results, and the damage is immediately felt.
The complaint, reportedly submitted by an individual in Malawi, targets seven gambling-related websites across multiple jurisdictions, including the Kansspelwijzer — a tool used by the Kansspelautoriteit to list licensed operators in the Netherlands.
The filing states: “Atlaslive, owner of the copyrighted content on [domain name], hereby notifies you that multiple pages on your platform are reproducing protected material from our website without permission… We request that you immediately remove all infringing material… Failure to comply… may result in further legal action.”
Since March 27, 2026, there were 59 (and counting) DMCA complaints logged in the Lumen database against the Kansspelautoriteit. Many of the complaints were made under different names and/or locations. Some were filed by individuals who were allegedly affiliated with companies such as SBTech and Delasport. Both SBTech and Delasport are providers of sportsbook technology; however, their involvement with the DMCA complaints filed against the Kansspelautoriteit is highly unlikely.
At the same time as the DMCA complaints against it, the Kansspelautoriteit has filed an excess of 60 “government complaints” with Google requesting removal of illegal gambling websites from search results. Several of the “government complaints” filed by the KAns spolautoriteit relate to enforcement actions against unlicensed operators such as BetSpino, in compliance with and as part of the enforcement of Dutch gambling regulations.
