Dutch court backs KSA in bid to stop Betsson affiliate firm
Hague Court says Betsson’s Content Publishing subsidiary was marketing illegal online gambling sites
A Dutch court has ruled against a Betsson affiliate subsidiary over whether it can direct traffic to online gambling sites.
Betsson’s Content Publishing subsidiary was hit with an injunction and threat of a financial penalty by the Dutch regulator (KSA) back in 2015 for publishing online gambling texts and links to operator sites.
The operator immediately complied with the injunction but appealed to the Hague Court, saying the text was “editorial information” and the laws against it were too broad.
However, a judge ruled this week that the primary purpose of the text was to forward potential players to online casino games and therefore the KSA was justified in its injunction.
Betsson will appeal this decision, CEO Pontus Lindwall confirmed to EGR.
The KSA yesterday hailed the court ruling as an important decision as continues to its battle against “illegal gambling”.
“This is the first time that judge has made a ruling in a case like this,” René Jansen, chairman of the of the KSA, said.
“Now it is clear that publishing a promotional text is seen as advertising. This statement provides the KSA with the opportunity to act if advertising is made in this way for non-licensed gaming.”
The case is unrelated to the ongoing regulation of egaming in the Netherlands, and Lindwall sai it was too early to comment on the potential cooling-off period operators may face.