The Netherlands Gambling Authority (KSA) has fined an operator over €880,000 for not treating its customers with adequate care, creating highly unwelcome negative PR for the industry at exactly the moment when it is desperate for positivity.

The KSA announced today (June 11) that it was fining licensed operator 711 a total of €886,000 for a series of duty of care failings, having found violations in all ten player files that it requested to view.

As part of its routine compliance sweeps, the regulator requested detailed gambling and customer care data on ten randomly selected high spenders at the operator.

The authority said that 711 had not properly analysed the gambling behaviour of its customers or taken the right measures to intervene when they showed signs of risky play.

In one case a player was allowed to lose €40,000 in four days before they were contacted for a wellness check and a source of funds request, the KSA said.

The contact that did take place was also not sufficiently in-depth to identify if the individual had a gambling problem, the regulator added.

In another case, a player was allowed to lose almost €200,000 over several weeks before they were contacted for a source of funds check, the KSA said.

The fine is the latest in a series of penalties related to the duty of care that operators own to their customers, which unlike many other European nations is an established part of the country’s gambling act.

The largest penalty so far is a €4m fine for Unibet operator Optdeck, but regulatory officials have said they continue to find failings on their random sweeps.

711 declined to give a comment to EEGaming, saying that it has a policy of not speaking with the press.

The decision by the KSA can be appealed.

The bigger context

The penalty for 711 is not the first punishment for duty of care failings in the Netherlands and it is unlikely to be the last, but this particular fine comes at a pivotal moment for the future of Dutch gambling.

The industry is awaiting a statement from minister Claudia van Bruggen on how she will change gambling policy over the next year.

She is under extreme pressure from several organised groups within parliament to enact tough new rules on a market that is already struggling to keep players out of the black market.

Most notably there have been repeated calls for a complete advertising ban, in addition to the existing ban on all non-targeted gambling advertising in the Netherlands.

A complete ban is opposed by the KSA, which revealed recently that it had held meetings with van Bruggen to make their case and said she “took our concerns very seriously”.

There have also been calls for a hard cap on the number of online gambling licences in the Netherlands, something that the KSA also argues is not in the best interests of consumers.

However the issuing of yet another reputation-damaging fine for the sector further adds to the risk that van Bruggen will feel a need to give in to public and political pressure and really turn the screw on the beleaguered sector.

Experts estimate that channelisation for online gambling in the Netherlands may be as low as 45 percent.

Rates of gambling with licensed operators have collapsed following the introduction of deposit limits, which can only be removed via affordability checks, and tax increases which have seen rates rise to 37.8 percent of gross gambling revenue.

One small crumb of relief for the industry will be upcoming proof of what something they warned would happen: Increasing the tax rate has resulted in lower income for the government, as players likely stop gambling or seek better odds offshore.

“A new impact assessment of the gambling tax will probably be published at the end of June, showing that the increase in the gambling tax did not achieve its intended goal,” revealed KSA head of licences and supervision, Ella Seijsener, speaking at the recent Gaming in Holland conference.

Analysts suggest that growth in the online market has slowed rapidly in recent months and that although channelisation may not decline further from here under current market conditions, there is equally little hope of lifting it back above 50 percent as things stand.

But far from an easing of rules, the local industry expects things to get tougher from here and are simply hoping that van Bruggen’s manifesto for the next phase of Dutch gambling regulation avoids some of the more extreme measures called for by her fellow politicians.

The post Dutch Duty of Care Fine Ramps Pressure On Industry Under Siege appeared first on EE Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.

The affiliate management platform takes the title in Madrid during the AffPapa Conference, following a SiGMA South America win earlier in 2026.

ReferOn has been named “Affiliate System of the Year” at the AffPapa iGaming Awards 2026 in Madrid, with the award announced during the AffPapa Conference.

The company said the win recognizes ReferOn’s growth and product development in affiliate management, including efforts to simplify multi-brand tracking and campaign reporting.

ReferOn pointed to recent product additions including its “Refie” visual UX layer and an automated crypto finance layer, which it said are designed to reduce manual administration and spreadsheet-driven workflows.

Alex Bukin, CEO at ReferOn, said: “This recognition belongs entirely to our team, whose passion drives our growth every single day. Our mission with ReferOn has always been disruptive: we don’t want to be another tool in the stack; we want to revolutionize how affiliate programs operate by making data transparent, accurate, and incredibly easy to manage. Winning this award confirms that giving teams their time back through better tracking is exactly what the market needs. With strong momentum behind us, our future expansion plans will continue to elevate the industry standard.”

The announcement follows ReferOn’s “Best Affiliate Software 2026” win at the SiGMA South America Awards. The company said its product roadmap for 2026 and beyond is focused on scale and platform updates, alongside expanding its global presence and strategic alliances.

The post ReferOn wins Affiliate System of the Year at AffPapa iGaming Awards 2026 appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.

The slow death of grey markets in Europe and the increasingly clear line between regulated spaces and the black market is set to divide the entire industry in two, including suppliers.

With almost all major European markets having adopted or being well on their way to enacting a full licensing regime for online gambling, the battle lines between what is on- and off-shore are clearer than ever.

For those nations that persist with restrictions on some sectors, like the continued monopoly in Norway or France’s ban on online casinos, it’s becoming nearly impossible to justify doing business in spite of these prohibitions – even for suppliers.

Regulators in the rest of Europe increasingly expect their licensees to follow not just their rules, but those of their fellow authorities across the continent.

Where once expectations of good behaviour were reserved exclusively for operators, B2B companies are now subject to the same scrutiny.

For the past few years, there has been a general building of pressure on suppliers, but this year B2B compliance has moved from a growing trend to become the status quo for the sector.

Where do you stand?

The industry is being asked to pick a side and even to play the role of regulator itself, in some cases.

“We understand that at least one piece of recent B2B regulatory enforcement [in the UK] may have come as a result of a B2C operator effectively reporting one of its suppliers,” said Andy Danson, the head of Bird & Bird’s international gambling practice.

It’s becoming clear that a meaningful percentage of operators have fully bought into the idea that those who continue to exist in European black or grey are threats to their bottom line.

Speaking on a recent webinar organised by his firm, Danson added: “There is an increasing use of commercial pressure and accountability alongside regulatory enforcement, and there is this growing expectation that licensed businesses consider who they support.”

Danson notes that, in his view, the burden on operators to self-police their industry is probably becoming too large.

“How much can a regulator really expect B2C licensees to regulate their suppliers? It is ultimately the regulator’s job to do that, and B2C really should be able to rely on their suppliers having a local license.”

This backwards pressure is also being exerted on suppliers in jurisdictions where they are required to obtain their own licenses.

Regulators expect suppliers not to sell their content to operators who service their local black market and look dimly on supplying companies active in illegal markets in any part of the world.

Gone are the days when these authorities would accept the excuse that aggregators are ultimately responsible for providing game content to these offshore operators. Instead, suppliers risk enforcement if they do not have oversight of the entire supply chain their products exist in.

Dealmakers

This pressure coming in from every angle leads to only one inevitable conclusion: M&A activity.

As suppliers are forced to choose either to abandon their high profit margin offshore clients or their reliable onshore customers, the possibility of dividing into two parts becomes more and more compelling.

“I think businesses will very likely look to separate and restructure, particularly where they currently have a real mix of regulated and unregulated market activities,” said Danson.

“We certainly saw similar trends five to ten years ago when the regulatory focus on this sort of issue was more on the B2B side,” he added.

This move would be driven partly by modern regulatory complexities, but also the impact of US investors entering the gambling market more prominently over the past five years.

US-based capital tends to be more skittish about any activity with uncertain regulatory backing and its law enforcement authorities are not shy about exerting their authority extraterritorially.

“International market exposure is becoming more and more relevant in an investment and M&A context,” Danson confirmed.

A dilemma

Those gambling businesses choosing the regulated environment are at least finding their authorities more willing than in previous years to take proactive action against the black market.

In the UK, the Gambling Commission has received a grant of £26m from the government to step up its work against illegal online gambling, for example.

Regulators are also understood to be sharing more information than ever before about the main bad actors afflicting their markets, through organizations like the Gambling Regulators Europe Forum (GREF).

Although it’s worth noting that officials also say they are swapping notes on the activities of their licence-holders as well, in yet a further example of international compliance becoming a local issue.

This, along with an atmosphere of zero compromise when it comes to tightening regulations, has created a situation where the choice between on- and off-shore is not a simple one.

Andy Danson summed up the problem: “By creating an environment which has become so burdensome and challenging for regulated markets to operate, and then challenging operators and suppliers to pick a side, regulators perhaps shouldn’t be all that surprised when some operators out there might not necessarily choose the side that they want them to.”

The post European Online Gambling Industry Faces Tough Offshore Choice appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.