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The Netherlands Gambling Authority (KSA) has said that two Dutch influencers have taken down a YouTube video advertising an illegal, unlicensed gambling operator and its website after a warning from the regulator.
After a first warning, the influencers blurred the images on the website, but the audio promoting the website was still audible, leading to a second warning, the regulator said on Tuesday (August 27). It did not name the influencers.
The KSA said it has frequently sent warnings to regional media that promote unlicensed operators on their websites, and the media often responds saying they were not aware that the website was unlicensed and thus illegal.
But the media are responsible for checking whether a company that wants to advertise with them has a Dutch licence, the authority said.
“If an advertiser advertises illegal offers, they themselves run the risk of a sanction,” the KSA wrote.
The influencer programme warned twice by the KSA is called Roddelpraat, or Gossip, according to Casino Nieuws, a Dutch affiliate which features gambling news.
Also this week, a recent warning from government-owned Holland Casino that losses will soar if a tax increase from the current 30.5 percent to 37.8 percent of gross gaming revenue set for next January takes effect as planned is stirring controversy in Dutch parliament.
Comments from the casino operator that it could be forced to begin advertising aggressively to cope with the increased tax bill has stoked comment from parliamentarians, including Diederik van Dijk of the Reformed Political Party (SGP).
Van Dijk asked state secretary Teun Struycken whether any expanded ad campaigns would be funded by the government, and wondered whether such a campaign would “seriously undermine” government concerns about gambling addiction.
Holland Casino has already been in the top five gambling advertisers since 2021, according to De Volkskrant.
A ban on targeted advertising for online gambling was tightened on July 1, but advertising for land-based gambling is still allowed.
Holland Casino has shifted much of its advertising to promoting its 14 land-based outlets, according to Casino Nieuws, citing Nielsen data.
Struycken must offer responses to the parliamentary questions over the coming weeks.
Member of parliament Mirjam Bikker of the Christian Union party, a persistent gambling critic, questioned whether Holland Casino needs all 14 outlets, or whether those open 24 hours need to be open for 24 hours.
But Marjan Olfers, a professor of sports law at Free University of Amsterdam, called for the government to cancel the planned increase in gambling tax.
“The gambling tax should not be increased, because otherwise all those players that we are now concerned about, may go to illegal providers,” she told EenVandaag on Dutch public TV.
