Kansspelautoriteit enforcement of offshore sites: Sanctions, Blockades and Risks

The Kansspelautoriteit tackles illegal gambling providers operating without a Dutch license. This is done on the basis of the Remote Gambling Act. The regulator uses strong measures such as penalty payments, blocks by internet service providers, and cooperation with banks. The goal is to protect Dutch players. Anyone who still plays on such a site misses the safety of CRUKS, must arrange gambling tax themselves, and has no right to consumer protection.

Enforcement Instruments: From Penalty Payments to Internet Blockades

The Kansspelautoriteit wants to stop illegal offerings immediately. The regulator does this with high financial sanctions and technical blockades. Through a compliance order under penalty payment, providers are forced to exclude Dutch players. This is meant to protect consumers from unsafe platforms and guarantee a fair market in accordance with the Remote Gambling Act.

How does a compliance order under penalty payment work?

A compliance order under penalty payment is not a direct fine, but a remedial sanction. The Kansspelautoriteit gives the violating party a deadline to stop the illegal offering. If the provider fails to do so, they must pay a monetary amount per week or per day. The financial impact is significant. In recent measures, the penalty payment amounts to €280,000 per week, with a maximum of €840,000. This forces companies like Techno Offshore Limited and Novatech Solutions N.V. to immediately cease their activities for Dutch IP addresses. The goal is preventive: removing access to illegal gambling and directing players to licensed providers.

Examples of Recent Sanctions

The Kansspelautoriteit recently took strong action against entities targeting the Dutch market without a license. Techno Offshore Limited and Novatech Solutions N.V. received a compliance order under penalty payment because they offered illegal gambling through multiple domains. This involved websites such as simplecasino.com, qbet.com, 55bet.com, and nolimitbet.com. Investigations revealed that these providers did not effectively block Dutch players. During an initial check, an account could be created and played immediately. Some regulator email addresses were later blocked, but other Dutch accounts remained accessible. The KSA viewed this as deliberate circumvention of enforcement. This case illustrates how the regulator identifies and tackles offshore operations behind sites like 55bet.com and nolimitbet.com.

Administrative Coercion versus Fines

The difference from a fine is that the provider can avoid paying a compliance order under penalty payment by ending the violation. An administrative penalty or fine is a direct punishment for the violation itself. For repeat offenders, these amounts often run high. The Kansspelautoriteit can combine both instruments: first a compliance order to stop the offering, and then a fine for the violations already committed. Additionally, the KSA invests in technical barriers, such as ISP blockades in cooperation with internet providers. This limits physical access to the servers of sites like simplecasino.com and qbet.com. This approach of financial pressure and technical blockade puts pressure on the gray market, although providers from jurisdictions such as Curaçao continue to circumvent regulations. Players should know that participating in these unlicensed sites offers no protection through CRUKS or other addiction prevention measures.

Technical Blockades: ISP and DNS Measures

The strategy focuses on cutting off the technical infrastructure of illegal providers. Cooperation with internet providers physically blocks access for Dutch players. This seriously disrupts the operational continuity of unlicensed casinos.

How do ISP and DNS blockades work?

An ISP blockade is a technical measure where internet providers refuse connections to specific domains of illegal casinos. Players in the Netherlands can no longer exchange data with these providers' servers. Effectiveness has recently increased due to advanced filtering. Providers and the Kansspelautoriteit jointly identify 'mirror sites' faster.

In addition to ISP measures, IP address blocking plays an important role. Specific server addresses are blocked here, preventing users from gaining access via direct connections. As a result, offshore parties must make constant technical adjustments. This increases their costs and worsens the user experience due to frequent interruptions. A DNS blockade also prevents the domain name of an illegal casino from being resolved to its corresponding IP address. Without this translation, the website remains unreachable, even if the player knows the exact address. This layered approach makes it increasingly difficult for providers to serve the Dutch market without their site going directly offline.

Financial Blockades and Supervision

Alongside technical barriers, the financial lifeline of illegal casinos is targeted. The KSA cuts off payment flows through cooperation with financial institutions. This is often more effective than web blockades because it targets the casino's core activity: processing money.

Blockade of Payment Flows

Financial accessibility is limited. iDEAL, the most widely used online payment method in the Netherlands, is not available on offshore sites. Participating banks refuse transactions to unlicensed providers. This protects players from the risk of their funds getting stuck with operators who have no legal liability in the Netherlands.

Trustly, a popular service for direct bank transfers, also enforces strict compliance rules. Transactions to known illegal gambling platforms are automatically flagged and blocked. These blockades are essential because players at these blocked providers cannot rely on the protection of the Kansspelautoriteit or the CRUKS register.

Cooperation with Financial Supervisors

Supervisors strengthen the fight against illegal offerings. De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) monitors the integrity of payment traffic and cooperates with the Kansspelautoriteit to minimize money laundering risks in illegal gambling flows. DNB detects suspicious transaction patterns that indicate activities of unlicensed providers.

Additionally, the Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) plays a role in ensuring fair financial practices. Although the AFM primarily supervises investment products, their vigilance contributes to the general climate of financial compliance in which illegal gambling operations have less room. This cooperation falls under the broader policy of the Ministry of Justice and Security, which is responsible for legislation regarding remote gambling. The ministry sets the framework within which the Kansspelautoriteit and financial supervisors operate, ensuring a coherent approach to the gray market.

Risks for Dutch Players with Offshore Providers

The focus is on closing the technical and financial access points for illegal operators, but this leaves consumers vulnerable. For Dutch players, this means they fall outside the legal safety net. They have no access to CRUKS or guaranteed consumer protection in case of disputes. Although participation is not criminal for the user, illegal providers do not automatically pay the Gambling Tax. This leads to complex tax obligations and the risk of fines from the Tax and Customs Administration.

No Access to CRUKS and Play Restrictions

The Central Register Exclusion of Gambling (CRUKS) is an important instrument for addiction prevention, managed by the Kansspelautoriteit to guarantee safe play. Players who register in the Central Register Exclusion of Gambling (CRUKS) are excluded from all legal providers in the Netherlands for at least six months, both online and land-based. License holders are legally obligated to consult this register before granting access. Illegal providers systematically ignore this check.

As a result, players at offshore sites miss the protection of the Central Register Exclusion of Gambling (CRUKS). Without this link, players with a gambling problem can continue playing unhindered. This contradicts the addiction prevention policy pursued by the government. The Kansspelautoriteit emphasizes that safe play is only guaranteed within licensed offerings, where strict requirements apply for detecting risky behavior. For help and advice, players can contact Stichting Speel Verantwoord, an independent organization that provides support for gambling problems, but this service is not linked to offshore platforms.

Fiscal Consequences: The Gambling Tax

With legal providers, the Gambling Tax is automatically withheld and paid, but at offshore sites, this burden falls entirely on the player. The Tax and Customs Administration applies the current rate to the net monthly profit, an amount that players must calculate and declare themselves. Because illegal providers do not offer transparent transaction statements in accordance with Dutch standards, players risk the tax authority viewing the entire payout as taxable income, without deducting losses.

Failing to file this declaration entails concrete financial risks, including fines. Unlike legal markets, where administration is handled by the operator, players at offshore sites must provide proof of net profit themselves. This often leads to legal uncertainty.

Lack of Consumer Protection

Enforcement results in a situation where the player cannot rely on the supervisor in case of disputes. The authority is only competent for license holders. With illegal providers, the player falls outside the scope of consumer protection. This means that in cases of non-payment or fraud, the Dutch government cannot intervene, often resulting in players losing their money.

Furthermore, there is no guarantee of fair play and protection against money laundering, elements that are strictly monitored with legal providers. Players are advised to report misconduct to the Kansspelautoriteit, but this rarely leads to individual financial restitution from offshore operators.

Strategy and Prioritization of the Kansspelautoriteit

The KSA follows a risk-based model. The authority does not act arbitrarily, but prioritizes providers with the largest number of Dutch players and the most aggressive marketing. This KSA Enforcement Strategy is anchored in the Remote Gambling Act and focuses on protecting consumers from illegal offerings that lack a license.

Criteria for Enforcement Prioritization

The supervisor cannot combat all illegal providers simultaneously and therefore makes strategic choices. The KSA Enforcement Strategy determines that the size of the target group is the most important factor: the more Dutch players play unprotected with an illegal provider, the higher the priority for intervention. Additionally, the KSA considers whether specific offerings, such as a wider game selection than legally permitted, are trying to lure players away from legal providers.

To obtain a legal license, organizations must meet strict requirements, including a Bibob screening and the presence of a representative in the Netherlands. Providers without this license, such as many platforms licensed in Curacao, fall outside this supervision and are therefore actively combated to prevent crime and addiction. The focus is on cutting off the technical and financial lifeline of these parties.

The Role of Advertising and Visibility

Enforcement focuses not only on the gaming platforms themselves, but also on marketing channels. The Advertising Code Commission plays a vital role here by supervising the Advertising Code for Online Gambling. Illegal providers are not allowed to make targeted advertising to Dutch consumers, but this still often happens via social media and affiliate networks.

The KSA reports detected illegal advertising directly to the relevant platforms to reduce visibility. The Advertising Code Commission evaluates complaints about misleading statements and can impose sanctions on members who violate the code. For foreign casinos without a license, any form of recruitment targeting the Netherlands is a violation of the Remote Gambling Act. By proactively blocking illegal content, the visibility of these providers has recently decreased significantly.

International Cooperation and Jurisdictions

The KSA views licenses from jurisdictions such as Curacao or Malta critically. Although a provider may have a license abroad, this does not mean they are legally allowed to operate in the Netherlands. The Remote Gambling Act requires that providers targeting the Dutch market have a local license.

Michel Groothuizen, as chairman of the Kansspelautoriteit, emphasizes that consumer protection is central. Players at offshore sites fall outside the CRUKS register and have no access to help via Stichting Speel Verantwoord. The KSA cooperates with international partners, but strictly enforces against providers who do not use the Dutch licensing procedure, regardless of their foreign status. The complexity of enforcement in Curaçao often lies in slow information provision and the lack of direct enforcement agreements, which the KSA compensates for by locally cutting off payment flows and internet access in the Netherlands.

About This Article - Editorial Standards

Author: Sarah Weber - Casino Tester & Bonus Analyst Factually reviewed by: Dr. Markus Hoffmann - Senior iGaming Compliance Analyst Last updated: 2026-07-15.

This article on "Kansspelautoriteit handhaving offshore sites" was written by Sarah Weber and factually reviewed by Dr. Markus Hoffmann. Both regularly update the content for changes in regulation, licensing and bonus terms. All references to licences, regulators and statutes link to public sources (the local gambling regulator, the applicable local gambling statute).

About the Author

8+ years reviewing casinos, 200+ personally tested platforms across the EU and globally. Former member of the eCOGRA Player Advocacy Program (2018-2022). Specialty: wagering requirements, withdrawal workflows, customer-support evaluation.

About the Reviewer

12+ years in the iGaming industry, including 5 years as a compliance consultant for licensed operators across multiple regulated markets. PhD in Economic Mathematics. Focus areas: bonus mathematics, wagering analysis, and player-protection systems.

Responsible Gambling

Gambling can be addictive. If you feel you are losing control of your play, please reach out to the relevant problem-gambling helpline or use the national self-exclusion register (the relevant national self-exclusion register). Set personal deposit and loss limits BEFORE you play with real money. Operator pauses and cooldown tools exist to keep play sustainable.

Legal Notice

The information in this article is provided for editorial and comparison purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Players are responsible for compliance with local regulations.