Compliance Updates
Dutch Gaming Authority Imposes Penalty Payment Order on BlokDance BV
The Dutch Gaming Authority (KSA) has imposed a penalty payment on BlockDance BV for offering unlicensed games of chance. Offering games of chance without the required license is prohibited in the Netherlands. If the party does not cease the violation and keep it ceased, it will be imposed a penalty payment.
Investigation by the KSA has shown that BlockDance offers illegal games of chance on the websites bc.game and bcgame.lu. After a re-inspection by the KSA, BlockDance made the investigated website inaccessible to Dutch players. At that time, the KSA announced to the party that it would not impose an order subject to penalty payments. However, during monitoring, the sites appeared to be available again, which is why an order is now being imposed after all. Within four weeks of sending the order, the company must definitively stop offering games in the Netherlands, otherwise they will receive a penalty payment of €280,000 per week, with a maximum of €840,000.
On the sites investigated it was possible to create a player account, make deposits and participate in the illegal gambling offered. No technical measures were taken on the sites to prevent participation from the Netherlands.
The Netherlands has a regulated gambling market to better protect players. The KSA therefore takes tough action against illegal supply. With an order subject to penalty, illegal supply is often quickly stopped. Providers can also be fined for the period in which the illegal supply was available.
The post Dutch Gaming Authority Imposes Penalty Payment Order on BlokDance BV appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
The Ukrainian Gambling Council (UGC) has appealed to Google to stop blocking all advertising of Ukrainian licensed gambling organisers, as it does not comply with the current legislation, leads to losses for both business and the state budget of Ukraine, and helps illegal operators to enrich themselves.
Combating illegal online gambling advertising is an important component of counteracting the development of the shadow gambling market. However, over the past year, an unbalanced policy in this regard has led to extremely negative consequences – search engines have begun to block all advertising related to the activities of primarily licensed Ukrainian gambling market organisers that have established and unchanged domain addresses in the Ukrainian Internet segment. However, illegal operators, who can easily change the names of their websites and move from one domain to another (in different jurisdictions), have hardly felt the effects of the bans.
In fact, Google considers Ukraine as a country where all types of gambling, except lotteries, are currently prohibited, and it blocks advertising mainly from legal companies. This situation leads to negative consequences and the expansion of the illegal services market. Licensed companies have obtained state licences and launched marketing campaigns, including sponsorship of sports competitions, but they cannot legally advertise their services online. As a result, companies lose customers and profits, and the state loses taxes.
It is worth noting that lotteries are among the services allowed on Google in Ukraine. However, all lottery operators, without exception, operate in Ukraine on the basis of licences that expired back in 2014. In fact, lotteries imitate gambling – betting, online casinos, slot machines – without having the appropriate licences. They also do not pay any taxes and licence fees to the budget. However, lottery operators are not subject to any restrictions on gambling advertising.
In order to remedy the situation and streamline the system of prohibitions in order to prevent further losses of business and state funds, the Ukrainian Gambling Council (UGC), a non-governmental organisation that unites licensed gambling organisers, has once again appealed to the management of the regional office of Google in Ukraine, namely, Paul Terence Manicle, Director of Google LLC, and Tetiana Lukyniuk, General Director of Google Office in Ukraine, with a request to lift the existing restrictions and provide an opportunity to officially advertise gambling, in particular, on the territory of Ukraine using Google services:
• activities related to the organisation and conduct of gambling in gambling establishments;
• organising and conducting casino gambling on the Internet;
• organising and conducting betting activities in betting shops and on the Internet;
• organising and conducting gambling in slot machine halls;
• organising and conducting poker games on the Internet.
Also, to remove the existing restrictions and allow official advertising of mobile applications on the territory of Ukraine using Google services and provide all opportunities for the official placement of mobile applications for organising and conducting online gambling on Google services.
The post UGC Once Again Appeals to Google to Stop Blocking Legal Gambling Ads appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
The Illegal Operations Control Department destroyed 574 gambling items that had been seized because they were operating without authorization in departments such as Cundinamarca, Atlántico, Valle del Cauca, among others, and which stopped transferring around $63.545 million to the health system.
“The destroyed items were valued at around $169 million and belonged to criminal structures that were dedicated to operating games of chance and luck without authorization and without paying the respective monopoly rents,” said Marco Emilio Hincapié, president of Coljuegos.
Among the destroyed items were electronic slot machines, bingo chairs, roulette wheels, poker tables, Keno and online betting modules, each of them composed of computers, CPUs, televisions, ticket machines, among others.
“In total, we have completed 7,934 destroyed items, valued at more than $1.5 billion. Due to these illegal activities, the health system has lost more than $200 billion in recent years, resources that would have allowed us to serve more Colombians under the subsidized regime,” said the president of the entity.
Hincapié also said that in the coming days, Coljuegos will continue destroying another 117 electronic slot machines, 350 bingo elements (chairs, tables and boards), 8 poker tables and 252 sports betting modules.
“Never before has an administration attacked illegality in the industry so strongly. We are doing this at the behest of our president Gustavo Petro, who has always asked us to fight corruption and to decisively strike the mafias that operate unauthorized games in various regions of the country,” said Hincapié.
It is worth mentioning that illegal gambling organizations in Colombia are failing to pay the State around $1.5 billion annually for exploitation rights, resources that could be allocated to the health of low-income citizens.
Balkans
Bulgaria’s National Revenue Agency Shuts Down More Than 2500 Unlicensed Gambling Websites This Year
So far this year, Bulgaria’s National Revenue Agency (NRA) has shut down over 2500 gambling websites operated by entities without an active gambling licence under the gambling law, NRA said in a press release.
In September, NRA Executive Director Rumen Spetsov issued over 640 decisions to halt the operations of online betting platforms without the required permits in the country. After the NRA publishes a decision, the affected websites have three days to cease operations. If they fail to comply, the NRA refers the case to the court, which may instruct internet service providers (ISPs) to block access to the non-compliant websites.
Decisions by the NRA and court rulings are available in the Online Gambling section of NRA’s website. NRA also keeps an updated register of gambling websites run by entities lacking a valid gambling operations permit.
NRA encourages online users to report unlicensed betting websites by emailing a specific address. The report should include the website’s name and the user’s ISP.
The post Bulgaria’s National Revenue Agency Shuts Down More Than 2500 Unlicensed Gambling Websites This Year appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
-
Australia6 days agoJamieson O’Reilly to Deliver Keynote at Regulating the Game 2025 Sydney
-
Canada6 days ago
Suspected Digital Fraud Coming from Canada Up Nearly 11% Since H1 2023, Reveals New TransUnion Analysis
-
Colombo Sport6 days ago
Digitain Signs Retail Partnership with Colombo Sport
-
Compliance Updates6 days ago
SCCG Announces Strategic Partnership with Steelhead Compliance Solutions
-
Conferences7 days ago
Salsa to present award-winning tech solutions for Latam’s regulated markets at SBC Summit Latinoamérica
-
Africa6 days ago
SIS joins forces with Instasolutions to strengthen live Numbers offering across Africa
-
Canada6 days ago
IBIA and PFA Canada anti-match-fixing education program concludes in Alberta
-
Interviews6 days ago
Axel Antillon: Our Peru entry is a major milestone for WA.Technology
