Dutch regulator fines Titanbet.com operator €200,000

The Dutch Gaming Authority (Kansspelautoriteit) has fined europacasino.com and titanbet.com operator Imperial E-Club €200,000 – the largest fine issued to a single company by the regulator – after finding them to have operated in the country without a licence.

The regulator confirmed today that it issued the fine in February this year, with disclosure of the penalty was postponed by Imperial E-Club’s attempts to gain an injunction from the Dutch courts to prevent publication of the news.

Imperial E-Club’s actions had been under investigation between June 2012 and October 2013 and the Kansspelautoriteit considered europacasino.com to be focused on the Dutch market with a Dutch language option on the website.

Additional domains owned by the company, including titanbet.com, titanpoker.com, titancasino.com, vegasred.com and casinotropez.com, were also found to include Dutch language options and accept payments from PayPal’s Dutch-language site.

Europacasino.com’s language option was removed following a warning letter sent in October last year, however Imperial E-Club’s failure to remove the same language options from other domains caused the regulator to issue the €200,000 fine.

The Kansspelautoriteit has issued a number of warnings stating that operators continuing to target Dutch customers risk jeopardising future licence applications, with the market set to regulate late next year.

The fine is the largest imposed by the regulator on a single company after fining 7red.com and royaalcasino.com owners Redcorp SA and Bluemay Enterprises €130,000 each in October, and a statement issued by the Kansspelautoriteit said it had taken the firm’s operations into account when deciding on the level of the fine.

“The reason is mainly located in the large number of websites that Imperial E-Club Limited offered, the large number of gambling that could be played and the level of prices,” the statement read.

Imperial E-Club could not be reached for comment.