Dutch gambling regulator Kansspelautoriteit (KSA) has imposed a penalty payment order on the owner of social media account Luxurybingods for organising bingos without a permit and advertising those bingos. The KSA wants to prevent the party involved from continuing to organise and advertise bingos without a permit. For organising, the penalty payment order is €19,000 per bingo with a maximum of €190,000. And for advertising, a penalty payment order of €9500 per advertisement with a maximum of €95,000 applies.

Small games of chance such as bingo may only be organised by an association that has existed for at least three years and was not established to organise games of chance. The prizes to be won may not be worth more than €400 each or €1550 in total. Furthermore, there is a ban on advertising these small games of chance.

Extensive advertising

During a visit to the Harbour Club in Eindhoven on 27 March this year, supervisors from the Ksa saw that the Luxurybingods bingo was in full swing. No permit had been requested for this. Furthermore, research shows that this bingo was extensively advertised via TikTok. Tickets cost €65 each and the value of the prizes was far above the maximum permitted by law. The bingo was held for the benefit of the organisation itself.

Repetition

The KSA believes that the chance of recurrence is high. Partly because bingos have also been held at other locations and the owner offered illegal online lotteries in 2022 via the Instagram account Luxurybingods. The organisation has already been reprimanded for this by the KSA. The imposed penalty payment prevents the person concerned from continuing to organise these types of bingos.