Dutch gambling regulator fines JOI Gaming for targeting young adults
The JVH Gaming & Entertainment division has been fined €400,000.
The Netherlands.- The Dutch gambling regulator Kansspelautoriteit (KSA) has fined JOI Gaming €400,000 for delivering adverts to young adults. The operator, a division of land-based casino operator JVH Gaming & Entertainment Group, was found to have sent emails to players aged under 24.
Article 2, Paragraph 4 of the Dutch Betting and Gaming Act prohibits the targeting of people aged under 24. However, the KSA found that JOI Gaming had sent seven unique emails regarding its online gaming site Jacks.nl to all of its active customer base, which includes players under that age, between December 8, 2021, and March 7, 2022. The email contained information about games and bonuses.
JOI Gaming, which gained its first Dutch online gambling licence in November 2021, admitted sending the emails but disagreed that they were a breach of the law. The KSA found otherwise, although the operator may still appeal its decision.
KSA chairman René Jansen said: “As far as we are concerned, the legislation is crystal clear: no recruitment activities aimed at young adults. In December 2021, the KSA further stressed to licensed providers how the provisions on advertising and recruitment activities are intended. The KSA, therefore, considers it serious and culpable that this provider nevertheless focused on young adults.”
Last month, Jansen revealed that the KSA had begun an investigation of operators that it believes have failed to implement their duty of care to players. Speaking at the Amsterdam Gambling & Awareness Congress 2022, he said the KSA also aims to introduce mandatory limits on gambling spend.
Dutch players must set a deposit limit when they create an account to gamble, but there is no limit on how high that can be. Jansen says this has led to players setting unrealistically high limits that they would never expect to reach. However, Jansen said that he believed some gaming operators were failing in their duty of care to Dutch customers and that a “broad investigation” was in process to probe how they implement that duty.
