Dutch Regulator Issues €1.275m Fine To Winning Poker Network

January 15, 2025
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The Netherlands Gambling Authority (KSA) has fined Winning Poker Network €1.275m over what it says are repeated violations of the country’s gambling laws.
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The Netherlands Gambling Authority (KSA) has fined Winning Poker Network (WPN) €1.275m over what it says are repeated violations of the country’s gambling laws.

The fine follows several attempts by the regulator to shut down WPN’s offering in the Netherlands via warnings and incremental fines.

The KSA first told the operator in March 2023 that it would impose daily penalties of €25,000 per week, up to a maximum of €75,000. 

WPN had reportedly blocked Dutch players from its truepoker.eu website, but was still offering gambling in the Netherlands without a licence through various other skins, the KSA reported at the time.

This latest enforcement relates primarily to americascardroom.eu, which advertises itself as both part of the WPN stable and an operator that has been “accepting US players since 2001”. Its website indicates it is licensed in Curaçao.

KSA chairman Michel Groothuizen said that the regulator had chosen to impose a fine in addition to the previously ordered weekly penalty.

“A penalty payment order is an effective way to quickly take illegal supply off the air. However, these types of parties should not think that they will get off easy with this, so we also impose fines for the violation committed. In doing so, we hit them where it really hurts, namely in their wallets,” he said.

The KSA’s investigations into WPN date back to early 2022, when the regulator first became aware that winningpoker.com was accessible from the Netherlands.

Officials from the regulator were able to create an account and deposit using a Dutch address and payment method, according to the KSA.

Later that year it conducted a review of americascardroom.eu and found similar violations, including the ability to gamble on casino games.

The regulator was also able to deposit on several WPN websites using cryptocurrency, it said.

WPN is based in Costa Rica, although the terms and conditions of Americas Cardroom indicate it is licensed through an arrangement with Foozle Ventures in Curaçao. However, the website does not feature a green or orange seal from the Curaçao Gaming Control Board (GCB).

As an interim measure while Curaçao's regulator adapts to new legislation, passed into law in December, which will open up the country’s infamously opaque licensing system, the GCB has been issuing digital seals that indicate if an operator has been granted or applied for an interim licence.

A notice on the GCB website indicates that fellow WPN skin www.acrpoker.eu has applied for a licence, and this website features an orange GCB seal. A green seal would indicate that an interim licence had been granted. According to the GCB, the acrpoker.eu application is “on hold”.

Despite Curaçao's status as part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the KSA has typically struggled to collect on the fines it issues to operators licensed by the island nation.

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