Bwin receives €350,000 Dutch fine for offering unlicensed gambling

GVC’s Gibraltar subsidiary Electraworks Limited has been fined €350,000 by the Dutch Gambling Authority (KSA) for offering egaming without a licence.

An investigation by the KSA found that several online games and sports betting markets were being offered on the bwin.com site to Dutch consumers from 3 August 2018 to 16 January 2019.

The KSA cited the use of the iDEAL payment method on the Bwin site, something which it defines as a Dutch-facing payment method. It also said the website was accessible from Dutch IP addresses.

A spokesperson for GVC confirmed the company would pay the fine but said it may choose to appeal the fine at a later date as it disagreed with the use of iDEAL as a marker for the targeting of Dutch players.

GVC also confirmed it no longer uses iDEAL as a payment method on any of its sites and said that its bwin.com site is not actively marketed to Dutch players.

The operator said that it was now “wholly compliant” with the regulatory guidelines set out by the KSA.

“We fully expect that we will be successful in our application for one of the new online sports-betting and gaming licences that are due to be issued over the course of 2021.

“In the meantime, we continue to provide our existing offering into the Netherlands, in line with the regulator’s guidelines and expectations,” GVC added.

The fine could delay the operator receiving a Dutch licence, with the regulator confirming recently that companies would be prevented from applying for a Dutch licence for two years after the time they actively targeted the Dutch market.

This suggests GVC might be forced to wait to apply until January 2021 rather than July 1, 2020 when other operators can apply.