The Kansspelautoriteit (KSA) announced that it has issued a cease and desist order to DigitalOcean, a provider of hosting solutions, asking it to stop providing services to illegal affiliate websites. Illegal online gambling affiliates have been a problem the Netherlands has been dealing with for a while as the KSA continues to protect the local market from offshore influence.
Affiliate websites refer gambling aficionados to gambling websites that suit their needs. However, the affiliates in question referred players to unlicensed gambling operators, thus violating the local regulations.
The KSA emphasized that operators are prohibited from offering casino games without having the necessary license. Additionally, affiliate websites should not promote the products of unlicensed companies, the regulator pointed out.
According to the KSA, the affiliate websites in question included casinozonderregistration.net and nieuw-casinos.net. Since the KSA could not determine the identity of the owners of the affiliates in question, it opted to issue the order to the hosting provider which makes their services available in the country.
As a result, DigitalOcean was asked to stop providing hosting services to the affiliate websites in question. The operator has four weeks to comply, lest it risk sanctions.
This order is in line with the KSAβs usual measures for blocking illegal operators and affiliates. To protect the local market, the regulator is also allowed to appeal to payment providers and internet service providers and ask them to stop dealing with certain websites. Β
The Dutch Market Is Heavily Regulated
The Dutch iGaming market continues to be one of the strictest gambling markets in Europe. The country recently banned untargeted gambling ads as it seeks to combat its concerning problem gambling rates.
However, stricter action might not always be the case, according to the Netherlands Online Gambling Association (NOGA). The organization recently commented on the declining channelization rates, attributing the leak of players to the black market to the unsustainable restrictions.
The NOGA suggested that too much regulation risks alienating the players. At the same time, the ban on untargeted ads limits the reach of licensed companies, making them less competitive compared to their offshore counterparts.
In other news, the KSA recently teamed up with the global provider of cloud services, Cloudflare. This tie-up will allow the KSA to tackle illegal online gambling websites that offer their services to customers in the Netherlands.